In a recent publication in Scientific Reports, researchers conducted a meta-analysis that discovered a reliable casual correlation between GERD and NAFLD. Due to the high incidence of both conditions, these findings indicate a need for further research to explore novel prevention and treatment strategies.

The researchers sought to employ Mendelian randomization (MR) and meta-analysis to clarify whether there was a causal association between GERD and NAFLD and, if so, to approximate the extent of the causal effect.

The authors wrote, “Accumulating evidence from observational studies have suggested an association between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, due to the fact that such studies are prone to biases, we imported Mendelian randomization (MR) to explore whether the causal association between two diseases exists.”

In addition to MR, the researchers retrieved single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with GERD from a genome-wide association study dataset and SNPs related to NAFLD from the FinnGen dataset.

Numerous statistical methods were used to examine the association between GERD and NAFLD, including inverse variance–weighted, MR-Egger, and weighted-median approaches. Additionally, the strength of the causal association was measured using the MR-Egger intercept, Cochran’s Q test, leave-one-out analysis, MR-PRESSO, and Steiger directionality test. Lastly, meta-analysis techniques were employed to provide an overall evaluation of the findings.

The authors noted, “To our knowledge, this study is the first MR analysis to reveal the causation between GERD and NAFLD.”

The results revealed that by virtue of the GWAS and FinnGen databases, the overall risk of being diagnosed with NAFLD is an estimated 71% in individuals with GERD (odds ratio 1.71; 95% CI, 1.40-2.09; P <.0001) in MR and meta-analysis.

Based on their findings, the authors concluded, “Our MR study combined with meta-analysis indicated the credible causal association between GERD and NAFLD. Considering the high prevalence of both diseases, further investigations may contribute to the development of new prevention and treatment strategies.”

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