Kids who’re sedentary for over 6 hours a day at high fatty liver disease risk

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Kids who are sedentary for more than six waking hours a day have a significantly increased risk of severe fatty liver disease and liver cirrhosis by young adulthood, a new study warned on Saturday.

Fatty liver disease is a harmful fat buildup in the liver. When the condition is not due to alcohol consumption but linked to at least one of five components of metabolic syndrome, it is called metabolic-associated steatotic (fatty) liver disease (MASLD).

“We found that this relationship between sedentariness and liver damage is likely causal,” said Professor Andrew Agbaje, of the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, Finland, at ‘ENDO 2024’, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Boston in the US.

For the study published in the journal Nature’s Gut and Liver, Agbaje analysed data from a long-term study of a large UK birth cohort.

At ages 17 and 24, study participants underwent a liver ultrasound scan to assess for fatty liver and evidence of liver scarring.

On average, children from the study spent 6 hours a day sitting or otherwise being sedentary, but this time increased to 9 hours daily by young adulthood.

For each half-hour of sedentary behaviour above 6 hours per day, children had 15 per cent higher odds of developing fatty liver disease before they were 25 years old.

Any increase of sedentary time above six hours a day resulted in a corresponding decrease in the time spent in light-intensity physical activity, therefore 3 hours less daily by young adulthood.

However, each additional half hour of light-intensity physical activity beyond 3 hours per day decreased the odds of severe fatty liver disease by 33 per cent.

“We believe that this alteration in sedentary time versus time for light-intensity physical activity sets the stage for disease initiation and progression,” Agbaje said.