LOS ANGELES — More than a third of the world’s population is affected by metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, the most common chronic liver disease in the world. These conditions are characterized as cardiometabolic risk factors because they affect the heart or metabolism. These results were independent of how many or which combination of cardiometabolic risk factors patients had, and held steady despite individuals’ gender, sex, race or ethnicity. The study found that the risk of death in MASLD patients increased by 15% for each additional cardiometabolic risk factor present. The study authors tracked all-cause mortality rates by individual cardiometabolic risk factors to reach their conclusions.