Very Low Alcohol Consumption Is Associated with Lower Prevalence of Cirrhosis and Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

The role of moderate alcohol consumption in the evolution of NAFLD is still debated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of current and lifelong alcohol consumption in patients with NAFLD. From 2015 to 2020, we enrolled 276 consecutive patients fulfilling criteria of NAFLD (alcohol consumption up to 140 g/week for women and 210 g/week for men). According to their current alcohol intake per week, patients were divided in: abstainers, very low consumers (C1: <70 g/week) and moderate consumers (C2). We created a new tool, called LACU (Lifetime Alcohol Consuming Unit) to estimate the alcohol exposure across lifetime: 1 LACU was defined as 7 alcohol units per week for 1 drinking year. Patients were divided into lifelong abstainers and consumers and the latter furtherly divided into quartiles: Q1-Q4. Stratification according to alcohol intake, both current and cumulative as estimated by LACU, showed that very low consumers (C1 and Q1-Q3) displayed lower frequency of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma compared to abstainers and moderate consumers (C2 and Q4). We can speculate that up to one glass of wine daily in the context of a Mediterranean diet may be a long-term useful approach in selected NAFLD patients.