The effect of green tea intake on risk of liver disease: a meta analysis.

AIM:There have been many reports on the reduction of liver disease with green tea consumption. This study aims to evaluate the body of evidence related to green tea consumption on the risk of liver disease and determine the effectiveness. METHODS:Electronic searches were conducted in PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang and Weipu databases. Statistical analysis was performed using the software Revman 5.2 and Stata 12.0. RESULTS:Meta-analysis revealed that among green tea drinkers, there was a significant reduction in the risk of liver disease (RR=0.68, 95% CI=0.56-0.82, P=0.000). This trend extends to a broad spectrum of liver conditions including hepatocellular carcinoma (RR=0.74, 95% CI=0.56-0.97, P=0.027), liver steatosis (RR=0.65, 95% CI=0.44-0.98, P=0.039), hepatitis (RR=0.57, 95% CI=0.45-0.73, P=0.000), liver cirrhosis (RR=0.56, 95% CI=0.31-1.01, P=0.053) and chronic liver disease (RR=0.49, 95% CI=0.29-0.82, P=0.007). This trend is also observed regardless of the race of the individual concerned where the Asian, American and European subgroups all demonstrated a reduced risk of liver disease. CONCLUSIONS:Green tea intake reduces the risk of liver disease. However, more long term randomized clinical trials are needed to comprehensively evaluate the health benefits of green tea.