Analysis of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance’s Health Information DBThe prevalence of people in their 20s is 1.5 times in 10 years
Fatty liver, which was considered a disease in the middle-aged, is also commonly found in people in their 20s and 30s.Critics point out that it is easy to miss the timing of treatment because there are no symptoms, and if it worsens to cirrhosis and liver cancer, the burden of medical expenses increases rapidly, requiring early management
According to an analysis of the health information database (DB) accumulated by Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance on the 27th, the number of customers who received local-related loss insurance payments doubled from 12,000 in 2015 to 23,000 last year
The increase in young people was particularly noticeable. The number of fatty liver patients in their 20s per 100,000 people increased by 46% from 148 to 216 over 10 years. The number of people in their 30s also increased 25 percent from 355 to 443. One in two fatty liver patients had hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia together
The increase in obesity among young people is also considered the background of the spread of fatty liver. According to the National Health and Nutrition Survey of the <a href="https://healthylife7.com/korea-to-participate-in-u-s/” title=”Korea to participate in U.S.”>Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of obesity in 2023 jumped from 18.2% to 22.1% in the 20s and from 21.8% to 27.3% in the 30s. Obesity is a major factor that increases the risk of developing fatty liver as well as diabetes and dyslipidemia
The problem is that fatty liver does not show symptoms for a considerable period of time. In the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, 79.9% of fatty liver patients accidentally discovered the disease during health checkups, but the percentage of actual treatment started remained at 57.7%
According to Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance’s 10-year follow-up of 11,193 customers diagnosed with fatty liver, 4% had cirrhosis and 1.5% had liver cancer. The progression rate of cirrhosis in patients with diabetes was 5.2%, which was 1.3 percentage points higher than in patients without any chronic diseases
The worse the disease, the greater the cost burden. The per capita medical cost of cirrhosis patients was 3.9 times higher than that of chronic viral hepatitis stage, and liver cancer was 7.3 times higher
An insurance industry official said, “In the past, liver disease was viewed as a guaranteed risk for the middle-aged, but recently, metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes have spread to young people, and the timing of the risk is accelerating.”
