1. Missed Opportunities in Guideline-Based Fatty Liver Screening Among 3.5 Million Children.
- Author
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Gulati R, Gulati K, Durrani HM, Sahni H, Mhanna MJ, Kaelber DC, Alkhouri N, and Suri R
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Child, Female, Humans, Male, Body Mass Index, Fatty Liver diagnosis, Medicaid, Missed Diagnosis statistics & numerical data, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease diagnosis, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease epidemiology, Practice Guidelines as Topic, Sex Factors, United States, Alanine Transaminase blood, Mass Screening statistics & numerical data, Pediatric Obesity diagnosis, Pediatric Obesity epidemiology
- Abstract
Objective: Determine screening rates and examine socio-demographic characteristics of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MAFLD) screening in a large population of obese children., Methods: We used Explorys (IBM) which contains aggregated population-level electronic health record data from approximately 360 hospitals and 317,000 providers across the United States to determine MAFLD screening rates. In children 10 to 14 years, obesity was determined based on body mass index ≥ 95%, or encounter with an international classification of disease obesity code. We determined screening rates by calculating the percentage of children with obesity who had an alanine aminotransferase tested, further analyzed by gender, race, and insurance., Results: Of 3,558,420 children, 513,170 (14.4%) were obese. Of obese children, only 9.3% were screened for MAFLD. Females were more likely screened than males (odds ratio (OR) 1.09 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.07-1.12)); White children were more likely screened than non-White children (OR 1.21 (95% CI: 1.18-1.23)), and children with Medicaid more likely screened than children with non-Medicaid insurance (OR 1.34 (95% CI: 1.32-1.37))., Conclusions: The percentage of obese children receiving screening for MAFLD was low. Female gender, White race, and Medicaid insurance were associated with increased screening rates. These findings highlight the need to increase adherence to MAFLD screening. Reporting screening as a health quality measure may reduce implementation gaps in MAFLD screening., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no example conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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