TY - JOUR
T1 - A global survey of health care workers' awareness of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
T2 - The AwareNASH survey
AU - Driessen, Stan
AU - de Jong, Vivian D
AU - van Son, Koen C
AU - Klompenhouwer, Tatiana
AU - Colardelle, Yann
AU - Alings, Marco
AU - Moreno, Cristophe
AU - Anker, Stefan D
AU - Castro Cabezas, Manuel
AU - Holleboom, Adriaan G
AU - Grobbee, Diederick E
AU - Tushuizen, Maarten E
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Medical Education Global Solutions for creating and conducting the survey. We thank Elevate Health for providing the platform for disseminating the survey. We thank the EASD, the EAPC, the NVE, Spanish Society of Diabetes, TMA, and Julius Clinical for disseminating the survey. The development, conduct and dissemination of the AwareNASH survey was supported by an independent educational grant from Pfizer inc. The authors received no specific funding to undertake the statistical analyses and preparation of this manuscript.
Funding Information:
We thank Medical Education Global Solutions for creating and conducting the survey. We thank Elevate Health for providing the platform for disseminating the survey. We thank the EASD, the EAPC, the NVE, Spanish Society of Diabetes, TMA, and Julius Clinical for disseminating the survey. The development, conduct and dissemination of the AwareNASH survey was supported by an independent educational grant from Pfizer inc. The authors received no specific funding to undertake the statistical analyses and preparation of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. United European Gastroenterology Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of United European Gastroenterology.
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - BACKGROUND: The estimated global prevalence and burden of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its advanced stage, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), is increasing. Yet, NAFLD remains largely underdiagnosed. In addition to hepatic morbidity and mortality, NAFLD is associated with increased cardiovascular complications, warranting a multidisciplinary approach. Despite its rapidly increasing prevalence, knowledge of NAFLD among healthcare workers is limited, especially with specialists outside the field of hepatology and gastroenterology.OBJECTIVES: To investigate knowledge, practice and opinions/attitudes of healthcare workers towards diagnosis and management of NAFLD/NASH.METHODS: The survey was designed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary scientific committee established especially for this study. The survey was disseminated to healthcare workers from seven different disciplines through four collaborating societies, social media and at a cardiology-themed conference from February to June 2022. Median and interquartile range were mentioned for numeric responses and proportions for categorical responses or responses on a Likert scale. Likert scale responses were treated as ordinal data and analysed with the appropriate tests.RESULTS: The full dataset included 613 respondents from 88 different countries (including 488 physicians). 64% of the surveyed physicians underestimated the prevalence of NAFLD. General practitioners and cardiologists underestimated the prevalence most often (74% and 77%, respectively). Compared to the other disciplines, cardiologists were least familiar with the symptoms and diagnostic criteria and felt least confident in diagnosing and managing NAFLD. Overall, 65% of physicians reported regularly using evidence-based guidelines for managing NAFLD, yet 72% reported challenges in providing lifestyle recommendations. A lack of awareness was the most common reported reason for the lack of screening for NAFLD (68% respectively).CONCLUSIONS: Despite the growing burden of NAFLD, there is a significant gap in awareness, knowledge, and management among physicians treating patients with cardiometabolic comorbidities, particularly cardiologists. Hepatologists and gastroenterologists could play a role in educating their fellow physicians.
AB - BACKGROUND: The estimated global prevalence and burden of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its advanced stage, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), is increasing. Yet, NAFLD remains largely underdiagnosed. In addition to hepatic morbidity and mortality, NAFLD is associated with increased cardiovascular complications, warranting a multidisciplinary approach. Despite its rapidly increasing prevalence, knowledge of NAFLD among healthcare workers is limited, especially with specialists outside the field of hepatology and gastroenterology.OBJECTIVES: To investigate knowledge, practice and opinions/attitudes of healthcare workers towards diagnosis and management of NAFLD/NASH.METHODS: The survey was designed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary scientific committee established especially for this study. The survey was disseminated to healthcare workers from seven different disciplines through four collaborating societies, social media and at a cardiology-themed conference from February to June 2022. Median and interquartile range were mentioned for numeric responses and proportions for categorical responses or responses on a Likert scale. Likert scale responses were treated as ordinal data and analysed with the appropriate tests.RESULTS: The full dataset included 613 respondents from 88 different countries (including 488 physicians). 64% of the surveyed physicians underestimated the prevalence of NAFLD. General practitioners and cardiologists underestimated the prevalence most often (74% and 77%, respectively). Compared to the other disciplines, cardiologists were least familiar with the symptoms and diagnostic criteria and felt least confident in diagnosing and managing NAFLD. Overall, 65% of physicians reported regularly using evidence-based guidelines for managing NAFLD, yet 72% reported challenges in providing lifestyle recommendations. A lack of awareness was the most common reported reason for the lack of screening for NAFLD (68% respectively).CONCLUSIONS: Despite the growing burden of NAFLD, there is a significant gap in awareness, knowledge, and management among physicians treating patients with cardiometabolic comorbidities, particularly cardiologists. Hepatologists and gastroenterologists could play a role in educating their fellow physicians.
KW - awareness
KW - cardiologists
KW - cardiovascular complications
KW - healthcare workers
KW - multidisciplinary approach
KW - NAFLD
KW - NASH
KW - non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
KW - non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
KW - survey
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85167589845
U2 - 10.1002/ueg2.12445
DO - 10.1002/ueg2.12445
M3 - Article
C2 - 37563849
SN - 2050-6406
VL - 11
SP - 654
EP - 662
JO - United European Gastroenterology Journal
JF - United European Gastroenterology Journal
IS - 7
ER -