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Awareness of Fatty Liver Disease Remains Low Among Most At-Risk Patients

May 2, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

Results of a new survey show that even among patients at highest risk
for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), awareness of the liver disease
remains low.

NORTHBROOK, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cirrhosis?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#Cirrhosislt;/agt;–The results of a new survey released last week at the 3rd Annual NASH
(nonalcoholic steatohepatitis) Summit in Boston show that even among
patients most at-risk for the fatty liver disease, awareness of the
condition remains low.

Global clinical trial enrollment company Continuum Clinical, which
conducted the survey, found that among Americans with co-morbidities
most associated with NASH—including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and
hypertension—only 6% have ever heard of NASH. In a previous survey
Continuum conducted of 1,000 Americans, unaided awareness of NASH was
only 2%.

“Low public awareness of NASH and fatty liver disease is a barrier to
clinical trial enrollment,” said Cathleen Dohrn, Ph.D., Continuum
Clinical’s Senior Scientific Director who presented the findings at the
Summit. “NASH clinical trial sponsors need thousands of patients in
order to find the first treatment for this condition, which will
necessitate increased awareness and diagnosis of NASH.”

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases, NASH is an advanced form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
(NAFLD), a condition in which excess fat is stored in your liver and is
not caused by heavy alcohol use. NAFLD is one of the most common causes
of liver disease in the United States, and a precursor to NASH. Experts
estimate that about 20 percent of people with NAFLD have NASH.

Continuum also found that 48% of at-risk Hispanic/Latino respondents
were most concerned about liver disease versus 32% of the total
population surveyed. In addition, Hispanic/Latino respondents were more
significantly more interested in learning about a hypothetical NASH
clinical research study (62% versus 49% of the total population).

“NASH disproportionately affects the Hispanic/Latino population, so
having confirmation that this cohort is interested in clinical research
signals to us that a special effort must be made to ensure clinical
trial enrollment is inclusive,” Dohrn said.

To help explore strategies on how pharmaceutical companies can tackle
this patient enrollment challenge, on May 22 Continuum Clinical will
host a webinar
on overcoming NASH clinical trial challenges with Wayne Eskridge, CEO of
the Fatty Liver Foundation, and Qin Ye, MD, MS, associate principal of
ZS Associates.

About Continuum Clinical

Continuum Clinical is a global clinical trial enrollment company. With
over twenty-five years of experience, Continuum Clinical provides
sponsors and CROs with patient recruitment and retention planning, study
and site support, patient recruitment campaigns, patient advocacy and
diversity & inclusion services, retention solutions, and reporting and
analytics. We specialize in identifying and solving challenges that can
impact successful clinical trial enrollment, from protocol development
through study completion. Headquartered in the US, Continuum Clinical
has more than 140 employees in the US and Europe and an expanded network
of resources worldwide.