Study of liver cirrhosis over ten consecutive years in Southern China

Table 4 Etiology of the 8080 liver cirrhosis patients by age

Etiology	Age, yr
LC classification	mean ± SD	t value	P value
Viral hepatitis	50.7 ± 12.4
Alcohol	52.2 ± 11.0	-1.48	0.308
Autoimmune	54.3 ± 12.9	-3.66	0.029
Secondary biliary	46.3 ± 25.1	4.33	1.000
Metabolic diseases	27.2 ± 14.1	23.49	< 0.001
Drugs	56.0 ± 18.2	-5.33	1.000
Vascular diseases	42.8 ± 17.6	7.87	0.212
Parasites	58.1 ± 14.9	-7.42	0.319
IHS	2.5 ± 3.9	48.18	< 0.001
Mixed etiology	51.2 ± 9.7	-0.52	1.000
Other known etiology	44.7 ± 13.6	5.98	0.079
Cryptogenic cirrhosis	55.0 ± 17.5	-4.29	0.015

The P values were determined using the independent samples t-test. The viral hepatitis patients were used as the reference group when comparing differences in age for different etiologies. LC: Liver cirrhosis; IHS: Infantile hepatitis syndrome.