Health disparities in liver disease: Time to take notice and take action

Abstract

Health disparities between various groups in the United States have received increasing attention over the past decade, and solving this problem has become a major public health priority. The Federally-sponsored Healthy People 2010, our nation’s health promotion and disease prevention initiative, calls to “eliminate health disparities, including differences that occur by gender, race or ethnicity, education or income, disability, geographic location, or sexual orientation” (1). These health disparity populations constitute a large proportion of patients with liver disease (2, 3), and evidence suggests that these populations are disproportionately affected by several common hepatic disorders that include viral hepatitis (4-7), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (8, 9), and hepatocellular carcinoma (10-13). Health disparities, therefore, have special relevance to the field of hepatology. This policy statement aims to inform the hepatology community about the importance of health disparities in our field, provide a framework for approaching health disparities in research and clinical practice, and recommend ways the AASLD and its membership can work toward the reduction and elimination of health disparities in patients with liver disease.