The study is hosted at the University of Bristol and was initially led by Jean Golding, then George Davey Smith.

[2] The initial recruits were 15,247 pregnant women with estimated dates of delivery between April 1991 and December 1992.

ELSPAC included studies in Czechoslovakia[4] and the Isle of Man,[5] in addition to ALSPAC.

In the study, 2.5% of 4,000 people born in 1991 and 1992 were found by ultrasound scanning at the age of 18 to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; five years later transient elastography (fibroscan) found over 20% to have the fatty deposits on the liver of steatosis, indicating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; half of those were classified as severe.

The scans also found that 2.4% had the liver scarring of fibrosis, which can lead to cirrhosis.