Fatty Liver Disease (MASLD): Your Liver Tests as Research Data

Every figure in this guide comes from a published source, linked where it appears and kept in CureCircle's evidence base with the source's own words. It is not medical advice. Read on 7 November 2026.

Fatty liver disease, now called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), is often found by chance: a blood test that comes back a little high, a scan done for something else. What happens next varies widely. For many it stays mild for life; for some it scars the liver over years. Which way it goes, and what changes it, weight, diet, exercise, diabetes care, new medicines, is one of the open questions in medicine, and the answers are in the long records and lived experience of people who have it.

How many people live with it

A Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2021, MASLD had a prevalence of 1.27 billion people, and another GBD study counted 48.35 million new cases in 2021, almost double the number in 1990.

The records worth keeping

NICE's guideline on MASLD describes the tests that leave records:

• A liver fibrosis blood test: NICE suggests the enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) test for people diagnosed with MASLD, to check for scarring.
• Repeat tests over the years: for people with a low score, retesting every 3 years for adults and every 2 years for children and young people. The series shows whether the liver is changing.
• A liver ultrasound for children and young people with type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.

Your liver function blood tests (ALT and others), any liver stiffness scan, and your weight over time complete the picture. If you do not have them, ask your practice for a copy.

What sharing it is worth

CureCircle values every contribution with a public benchmark built from what health data has sold for. A complete fatty liver disease story with the records the guideline lists comes to about $62 per licence on the benchmark today. Every line and its source is on the fatty liver disease page.

A licence is not a one-off sale: the same de-identified story can be licensed to several research teams, and you earn a share each time.

People with the more advanced form, MASH (formerly NASH), are also paid for their time directly: a published listing offered $150 for a 75-minute phone interview.

How to share it

You start by writing what you live with in your own words; a few quick questions follow, then an AI interviewer asks about the details only you know, and you rate every change and treatment you tried. You can add blood results, scan reports and clinic letters as PDFs or photos, and the AI reads them into your own medical file. Before anything is shared, you read the de-identified summary and decide.

Start your story, or read what your health data is worth first.