Standards of liver cirrhosis care in Central Australia

Table 2 Comparison of aboriginal vs non-aboriginal patients

	Aboriginal	Non-aboriginal	P value
Total number	154 (79.8%)	39 (20.2%)
Age at diagnosis–mean ± SD	48.4 (11.1)	59.9 (10.9)	< 0.001
Gender–Female	76 (49.4%)	6 (15.4%)	< 0.001
Residence			< 0.001
Alice Springs	24 (15.6%)	34 (87.2%)
Alice Springs camp	31 (20.1%)	0
Rural	99 (64.3%)	5 (12.8%)
Risk factors
IVDU	2 (1.3%)	13 (33.3%)	< 0.001
Hazardous alcohol intake	111 (72.6%)	26 (66.7%)	0.468
Obesity	48 (34.5%)	15 (38.4%)	0.573
Child-Pugh score			0.091
A	69 (46.3%)	25 (64.1%)
B	62 (41.6%)	9 (23.1%)
C	18 (12.1%)	5 (12.8%)
MELD score–median (IQR)	11 (8, 20)	10 (8, 12)	0.026
Decompensating event triggering admission	45 (29.4%)	13 (34.2%)	0.565
Aetiology			< 0.001
Alcohol	86 (55.8%)	10 (25.6%)
Hepatitis B	20 (13.0%)	2 (5.1%)
NAFLD	12 (7.8%)	2 (5.1%)
Hepatitis C	1 (0.7%)	8 (20.5%)
Cardiac cirrhosis	4 (2.6%)	2 (5.1%)
Cryptogenic	4 (2.6%)	2 (5.1%)
Autoimmune hepatitis	1 (0.7%)	1 (2.6%)
Biliary diseases	0	2 (5.1%)
Hepatitis B + Alcohol	18 (11.7%)	0
NAFLD + Alcohol	5 (3.3%)	0
Hepatitis C + Alcohol	1 (0.7%)	10 (25.6%)
Hepatitis B + NAFLD	2 (1.3%)	0
Variceal surveillance	24 (17.8%)	11 (34.4%)	0.002
HCC surveillance	21 (16.7%)	11 (34.4%)	0.038
Development of HCC	21 (13.6%)	8 (20.5%)	0.283
Review in specialist clinic	63 (41.2%)	32 (84.1%)	< 0.001
Referral for liver transplantation	5 (3.3%)	7 (18.9%)	< 0.001

NAFLD: Non-Alcoholic fatty liver disease; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; MELD: Model for End-stage Liver Disease; IVDU: Intravenous drug use.