Alalwani J, Derbala M, Tayyem R, Bassil M. Metabolic associated steatotic liver disease in Qatar: Analysis of dietary patterns and nutrient intake. World J Hepatol 2025; 17(11): 111995 [PMID: 41358058 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i11.111995]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Maya Bassil, MS, PhD, Associate Professor, Head, Department of Nutrition Sciences, College of Health Sciences, QU Health, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Al Tarfa, Doha 0000, Qatar. bassil.maya@qu.edu.qa
Research Domain of This Article
Nutrition & Dietetics
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Joud Alalwani, Reema Tayyem, Maya Bassil, Department of Nutrition Sciences, College of Health Sciences, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha 0000, Qatar
Moutaz Derbala, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha 0000, Qatar
Author contributions: Alalwani J and Derbala M performed data collection; Tayyem R and Bassil M were responsible for the study conception and design, and for the development of the methodology; Alalwani J, Tayyem R, and Bassil M analyzed and interpreted the data; Alalwani J, Derbala M, Tayyem R, and Bassil M drafted, critically revised, and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study protocol was approved by Qatar University and Hamad Medical Center Institutional Review Board Committee, and the study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. The Institutional Review Board approval was also obtained from Qatar University’s side (No. QU-IRB 007/2024-EA). Our study is part of a large study conducted by Dr. Moutaz Derbala under the study title “Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) as non-invasive biomarkers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)”, approval No. MRC-01-21-033.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at bassil.maya@qu.edu.qa.
Corresponding author: Maya Bassil, MS, PhD, Associate Professor, Head, Department of Nutrition Sciences, College of Health Sciences, QU Health, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Al Tarfa, Doha 0000, Qatar. bassil.maya@qu.edu.qa
Received: July 16, 2025 Revised: August 31, 2025 Accepted: October 24, 2025 Published online: November 27, 2025 Processing time: 134 Days and 16.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study investigates the dietary intake and patterns of Arab patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in Qatar, where MASLD is prevalent but under-researched. Results reveal excessive intake of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium, alongside inadequate intake of several micronutrients, including vitamins A, E, K, calcium, and magnesium. Three distinct dietary patterns were identified, ‘Traditional’, ‘Prudent’ and ‘Fast-food’ patterns, though none were significantly associated with any health outcome. These findings highlight the need for culturally tailored dietary interventions that improve nutrient quality and reduce energy-dense food consumption, to support MASLD prevention and management in the region.
