According to the findings of a nationwide population-based cohort study published in The Journal of Internal Medicine, patients having non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) exhibited a slightly  elevated risk of getting fractures. But, the long-term risk of fractures was comparable to the general population. Axel Wester et al. undertook this study to explore the rate and risk of fractures and mortality rate after fracture in NAFLD people in comparison with the general population.

Utilizing data from Swedish National Patient Registry on 10,678 people having NAFLD, this study was carried out. Volunteers were matched for gender, municipality, and age with 99,176 controls from Swedish Total Population Registry. For estimating fracture rates, cox regression was utilized. The fracture risk was evaluated while accounting for competing risks (mortality and liver transplantation). A total of 12,312 fractures were reported during 761,176 person-years of follow-up.

NAFLD people (17.5 per 1000 person-years) exhibited a slightly greater fracture rate when compared to the controls (16.1 per 1000 person-years; adjusted hazard ratio of 1.11), although the 5-year risk of fractures was comparable (8.0%, 95% CI 7.4-8.6 versus 7.3%, 95% CI 7.2-7.5), as shown on Figure 1:

Furthermore, one-year mortality after fracture was comparable in controls and NAFLD patients. Thus, NAFLD seems to be associated with a greater risk of fracture.