Screening Patterns of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Children with Obesity in Canadian Primary Care: A Cross-Sectional Study

Missed Opportunities in Guideline-Based Fatty Liver Screening Among 3.5 Million Children

OBJECTIVE

Determine screening rates and examine socio-demographic characteristics of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MAFLD) screening in a large population of obese children.

METHODS

We used Explorys (IBM) which contains aggregated population-level electronic health record data from approximately 360 hospitals and 317,000 providers across the United States to determine MAFLD screening rates. In children 10 to 14 years, obesity was determined based on body mass index ≥ 95%, or encounter with an international classification of disease obesity code. We determined screening rates by calculating the percentage of children with obesity who had an alanine aminotransferase tested, further analyzed by gender, race, and insurance.

RESULTS

Of 3,558,420 children, 513,170 (14.4%) were obese. Of obese children, only 9.3% were screened for MAFLD. Females were more likely screened than males (odds ratio (OR) 1.09 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.07-1.12)); White children were more likely screened than non-White children (OR 1.21 (95% CI: 1.18-1.23)), and children with Medicaid more likely screened than children with non-Medicaid insurance (OR 1.34 (95% CI: 1.32-1.37)).

CONCLUSIONS

The percentage of obese children receiving screening for MAFLD was low. Female gender, White race, and Medicaid insurance were associated with increased screening rates. These findings highlight the need to increase adherence to MAFLD screening. Reporting screening as a health quality measure may reduce implementation gaps in MAFLD screening.

Using Real-World Electronic Health Record Data to Assess Chronic Disease Screening in Children: A Case Study of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Background: Data sources for assessing pediatric chronic diseases and associated screening practices are rare. One example is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a common chronic liver disease prevalent among children with overweight and obesity. If undetected, NAFLD can cause liver damage. Guidelines recommend screening for NAFLD using alanine aminotransferase (ALT) tests in children ≥9 years with obesity or those with overweight and cardiometabolic risk factors. This study explores how real-world data from electronic health records (EHRs) can be used to study NAFLD screening and ALT elevation. Research Design: Using IQVIA's Ambulatory Electronic Medical Record database, we studied patients 2-19 years of age with body mass index ≥85th percentile. Using a 3-year observation period (January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021), ALT results were extracted and assessed for elevation (≥1 ALT result ≥22.1 U/L for females and ≥25.8 U/L for males). Patients with liver disease (including NAFLD) or receiving hepatotoxic medications during 2017-2018 were excluded. Results: Among 919,203 patients 9-19 years of age, only 13% had ≥1 ALT result, including 14% of patients with obesity and 17% of patients with severe obesity. ALT results were identified for 5% of patients 2-8 years of age. Of patients with ALT results, 34% of patients 2-8 years of age and 38% of patients 9-19 years of age had ALT elevation. Males 9-19 years of age had a higher prevalence of ALT elevation than females (49% vs. 29%). Conclusions: EHR data offered novel insights into NAFLD screening: despite screening recommendations, ALT results among children with excess weight were infrequent. Among those with ALT results, ALT elevation was common, underscoring the importance of screening for early disease detection.