THURSDAY, Oct. 15, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Late-night eating, defined as eating after dinner or after bedtime, is associated with an increased risk for incident metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and incident cirrhosis, according to a study published online Oct. 9 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Robert M. Wilechansky, M.D., from Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, and colleagues conducted a pooled analysis of participants without baseline liver disease from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), NHS II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study to examine the longitudinal relationship between diurnal variations in eating behaviors and incident MASLD and cirrhosis. Participants were classified by eating behaviors, including late-night eating, skipping breakfast, and meal frequency.
During a median follow-up of 16 years among 199,155 participants, the researchers documented 315 incident cirrhosis events and 4,492 incident MASLD events. Late-night eating was associated with increased risks for cirrhosis and MASLD in multivariable-adjusted models (adjusted hazard ratios [aHR], 1.28 and 1.36, respectively). Skipping breakfast and variable meal frequencies were associated with incident cirrhosis and MASLD in age-adjusted models, but after multivariable adjustment, these associations were no longer significant. The relationship between late-night eating and cirrhosis was strengthened further in a sensitivity analysis adjusting for night shift work (aHR, 1.49), while the association with MASLD was unchanged. Late-night eating remained associated with incident cirrhosis and incident MASLD in the latency analysis imposing a four-year exposure latency (aHR, 1.31 and 1.36, respectively).
"The big takeaway here is that confining your calorie intake to several hours before bedtime might be beneficial," Wilechansky said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries.
