Millions living with fatty liver disease without knowing it, UK study suggests

Thursday 8 October, 2026 New research released today at the UK’s leading liver conference shows that millions of people in the UK are living with fatty liver disease without a diagnosis. Researchers presenting new data at the British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) conference found that only 2.42% of people had a recorded diagnosis of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in 2022, despite estimates that around one in four UK adults may have the condition. MASLD often causes no symptoms in its early stages and is frequently identified only through investigation of other health conditions, meaning many people are unaware they have liver disease until significant damage has occurred. Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust analysed routinely collected primary-care records from more than 11.7 million people and found that just 2.42% had a recorded diagnosis of MASLD in 2022. This was almost five times higher than in 2012, when 0.52% had a recorded diagnosis. Yet this remains substantially below estimates that around one in four adults in the UK have MASLD[i], suggesting a significant gap between the number of

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