Loneliness and Social Isolation with Risk of Incident Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, UK Biobank 2006 to 2022

2025

Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Fatty Liver Disease

Sample size: 405073 publication 10 minutes Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Ya Miao, Kong Xiaoke, Zhao Bin, Fang Fang, Chai Jin, Huang Jiaqi

Primary Institution: National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, Central South University

Are loneliness and social isolation independently associated with the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)?

Loneliness and social isolation are associated with an increased risk of NAFLD, independent of other risk factors.

Loneliness was associated with a 22% increased risk of NAFLD.
Social isolation was associated with a 13% increased risk of NAFLD.
30.4% of the loneliness-NAFLD association was mediated by unhealthy lifestyle factors.
33.2% of the loneliness-NAFLD association was mediated by depression.

Feeling lonely or isolated can make your liver sick, even if you are otherwise healthy.

This study analyzed data from 405,073 participants in the UK Biobank using questionnaires and Cox proportional hazard regression models.

The majority of participants were white Europeans, which may limit generalizability.

The study is observational, and loneliness and social isolation were assessed only once at baseline.

Mean age was 56.2 years, with 46.5% men; 4.7% reported loneliness and 8.9% reported social isolation.

p<0.001

95% CI: 1.11, 1.35 for loneliness; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.23 for social isolation

p<0.05

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