Polypharmacy Among Older Adults with Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease
Older adults with fatty liver disease face triple the medication burden of younger patients, creating urgency for smarter deprescribing approaches tailored to age.
Using NHANES 2017–2020 data representing ~42 million US adults ≥65 (39.8% with MASLD), MASLD adults ≥75 face a 3-fold higher polypharmacy burden versus younger MASLD adults, creating a tension between necessary cardiometabolic management and geriatric harm risk. The findings call for age-appropriate deprescribing and goal-concordant care frameworks for the growing MASLD-older adult intersection.
What the study was
- Study design
- retrospective_population_cohort
- Category
- cardiovascular_metabolic
- Maturity
- Validated
- Journal
- Journal of General Internal Medicine
Why it surfaced
Population-representative characterisation of polypharmacy burden in older MASLD patients—a growing clinical and health system challenge. Score 6 (N=1, D=1, P=2, E=2) for NHANES-based population evidence with clinically important geriatric dimension.
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