Background

Non‐alcohol related fatty liver disease (commonly called non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)) is liver steatosis in the absence of significant alcohol consumption, use of hepatotoxic medication, or other disorders affecting the liver such as hepatitis C virus infection, Wilson's disease, and starvation. NAFLD embraces the full spectrum of disease from pure steatosis (ie uncomplicated fatty liver) to non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), via NASH‐cirrhosis to cirrhosis. The optimal pharmacological treatment for people with NAFLD remains uncertain.

Objectives

To assess the comparative benefits and harms of different pharmacological interventions in the treatment of NAFLD through a network meta‐analysis and to generate rankings of the available pharmacological treatments according to their safety and efficacy. However, it was not possible to assess whether the potential effect modifiers were similar across different comparisons. Therefore, we did not perform the network meta‐analysis, and instead, assessed the comparative benefits and harms of different interventions using standard Cochrane methodology.