Abstract:
Background: Chronic liver disease is the long-term degradation of liver processes such as the
manufacture of clotting factors and other proteins, the detoxification of toxic metabolic
products, and the excretion of bile. Chronic liver disease complications are the primary cause
of morbidity and mortality. Although chronic liver disease is affecting patients’ lives, there is a
scarcity of comprehensive data on the magnitude of chronic liver disease and associated factors
in the study setting. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the magnitude and factors related
to chronic liver disease among patients attending chronic follow-up clinics at Eastern Ethiopia’s
public hospitals.
Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was employed using simple random sampling
to select 422 chronic disease patients. A pre-tested and interviewer-administered structured
questionnaire accompanied by a review of medical records was used to collect data. Data related
to chronic liver disease were extracted from medical records. Data were entered into Epi-Data
3.1 and exported to STATA 17.0 for analysis. A crude and adjusted logistic regression analysis
was done to identify factors associated with chronic liver disease. All variables with a p-value
of < 0.25 in the crude analysis were entered into the multivariable analysis. Finally, significance
was set at a p-value < 0.05.
Results: Of a total of 418 respondents, the overall magnitude of chronic liver disease was
23.68% (95%CI: 19.59%-27.77%). Among the age group 18-34 (AOR: 3.05; 95%CI: 1.52-
6.13), from rural areas (AOR: 1.77; 95%CI: 1.04–3.03), those with a history of substance abuse
like khat (AOR: 2.09; 95%CI: 1.18-3.67), and herbal medicine non-users (AOR: 0.35; 95%CI:
0.20-0.60) were factors significantly associated with chronic liver disease.
Conclusion: The magnitude of chronic liver disease was high among chronic patients, with one
out of every four patients having chronic liver disease. This study reported statistically
significant associations between CLD and age, residence, khat usage history, and herbal
medicine non-users
