Impacts of current lifestyle habits on the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children and adolescents (Atena Editora)

Abstract

With a broad etiological spectrum that encompasses metabolic, genetic, infectious, autoimmune, vascular, nutritional and idiopathic factors, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the main cause of liver cirrhosis in children and adolescents. This condition is related to the increasing rates of childhood obesity that are intrinsically linked to current lifestyle habits. Therefore, the objective of this work is to understand how NAFLD, related to life habits, leads to the functional loss of the liver. This is an integrative review of the literature on life habits and childhood and youth NAFLD in which the findings indicate that NAFLD affects 3 to 12% of the pediatric population and 70 to 90% of obese young people. This pathology presents a multifactorial development, associated with intrauterine conditions, hereditary and ethnic factors, gestational conditions and absence of breastfeeding. However, it is central obesity, associated with a high-carbohydrate and high-fat diet and a sedentary lifestyle, that increases the risk of NAFLD. This happens because hepatocytes exposed to exacerbated accumulation of lipids culminate in hepatic steatosis. Thus, adipose tissue produces adipocytokines that cause oxidative stress and stellate cell activation, resulting in necrosis, inflammation, and cirrhosis. NAFLD can progress to the cirrhotic stage due to the absence of pathognomonic symptoms and late diagnosis, between 11 and 13 years. Finally, it was understood that current lifestyle habits related to poor diet and sedentary lifestyle culminate in lipid accumulation and, thus, lead to NAFLD, which can lead to cirrhosis.