Disease burden is a term that encompasses a num-ber of aspects of the impact of a disease on the health of a population, ranging from (1) the frequency of the disease, as measured by incidence and prevalence, to its effect on (2) longevity, such as casefatality rate and years of life lost due to premature death,(3) morbidity including decrease in health status and quality of life, and (4) finance, including direct health care expenditures and indirect costs related to lost income from premature death or disability. Accurate knowledge of the burden of liver disease is essential in formulating health care policies to prioritize health interventions and research and to allocate resources accordingly. Liver disease is thought to be relatively rare. However, some liver diseases (eg, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or hepatitis C) are prevalent in the population and others (eg, hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC] or fulminant hepatic failure [FHF]) are highly lethal. While effective treatment and prevention are available for many types of liver disease, long-term consequences of ongoing liver damage may necessitate liver transplantation, one of the most involved medical undertakings performed today.

This review represents a summary of a workshop conducted by the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease in May 2001 in conjunction with the Digestive Disease Week. The goal of the workshop was to assemble available data on epidemiology and burden of liver disease