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Article History

Received: 17 January 2019

Accepted: 10 April 2019

First Online: 20 May 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: We followed local data laws in all four territories from which data were obtained, and in all countries, specific ethical approval was not required for this study that used anonymised data. However, approval was sought and obtained from the scientific research committee for THIN, the IPCI Governing Board (ref 2015/18) and the IDIAP Ethics Committee (Reference P15/167) and the scientific committee of the Italian College of General Practitioners and Primary Care.

: Not applicable.

: MA was contracted to work at and SK and DMW are employees of GlaxoSmithKline which has conducted clinical research including trials of therapeutic agents in NAFLD. AKL is an employee of Pfizer which is conducting clinical research including trials of therapeutic agents in NAFLD. TDS: none to declare. DP-A: unrestricted research grants from UCB, Amgen, Servier, and consultancy fees (paid to his department/research group) from UCB Pharma. DA: consultancy and advice to many pharmaceutical companies on undertaking outcomes studies using real-world evidence. FL: consultancy for AlfaSigma, Bayer and Abbvie. SK: Employee and stock holder, GlaxoSmithKline. NS: consulted for Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Janssen, and grants from Astrazeneca and BI. WA: Consultant and sponsored lectures: UCB Pharma, Gilead, Intercept and Medimmune.

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