B4274 - Academy of Medical Sciences Starter Grant Investigating the rise of liver disease in young adults in the UK - 01/03/2023
90% of liver disease is preventable with the main causes in the UK being damage from alcohol and obesity. Sadly, liver disease is now a leading cause of death in 35-49 year olds. By the time people come to hospital with liver disease, 1 in 6 will die during their stay. However, it takes many years to develop liver disease, often with no symptoms. That gives us a chance to detect it before serious complications develop.
I am working with one of the biggest birth cohorts in the world, the Children of the 90s. They have looked for liver disease in their members aged 17 and 24years old. When they were 24years, I found 1 in 5 had a fatty liver and 1 in 40 already had liver scarring, mainly due to obesity and alcohol.
I plan to repeat this with our members, now 30years, with liver scans and blood tests. An Academy Starter Grant funding would help with analysis of 2000 blood tests from our members. We want to understand why some adults are developing liver disease earlier. Are there factors in childhood and adolescence we can tackle? By understanding who is developing liver disease early, and why, we can help with public health messages we provide. We can also target people who most need our support. Finding people with liver disease early and getting them seen by a specialist will reduce the chance of them getting sick and dying from liver disease.