Almost a third of routine drinkers in a new study had sustained enough liver damage to increase their risk of early death.

The research at University College London found an unexpectedly high level of liver abnormalities among routine drinkers described as “normal working people” who consume more than average but would not regard themselves as alcoholics.

The findings, to be published this week in Hepatology, a medical journal, come as the government considers introducing national screening as part of a new plan to tackle rising levels of liver disease.

Professor Rajiv Jalan, head of the liver failure group at University College London hospitals and one of the authors of the study, said: “These are people working in offices who we routinely encounter. They are representative of working people in our society and they are at risk.”

Doctors warn that the symptoms of liver disease are not felt until it is too late and by the time they are apparent patients have a 25%-50% chance of early death.

Jalan and colleagues studied the results of more than 1,000 men and women who purchased home testing kits for liver damage. Most were concerned enough about their drinking to take the tests but not sufficiently worried to see a doctor.

The researchers describe the group as the “worried well”. Almost 60% were women and the majority were aged 36-55. More than 70% exceeded the government’s recommended limits of 14 units of alcohol a week for women and 21 for men, and 41% said they drank every day.

The LiverCheck testing kits, made by YorkTest Laboratories, measure enzymes in the blood called alanine aminotrans-ferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotrans-ferase (AST), high levels of which indicate liver abnormalities. Jalan is a scientific adviser to YorkTest.

Studies from America, South Korea and Italy have tried to establish the levels of enzymes that indicate liver damage.

Jalan says that even when taking the most conservative cut-off point of normal enzyme levels, about 30% of those tested had shown abnormalities.

Up to 2m people in Britain have chronic liver disease. Many are unaware of their illness. Deaths from the disease have increased by eight times in men aged 35-44 and by seven times in women over the past 30 years.

A study by the Medical Research Council found that intelligent people were at greater risk of alcohol problems than their less gifted friends, possibly because of working at stressful jobs. Ministers have asserted that middle-class adults drinking at home are putting their health at risk.

Anne Collins, 53, of Fleet, Hampshire, was drinking three glasses of wine a night during the week and a bottle every evening at the weekend for years while her children, now aged 11 to 16, were growing up.

“I didn’t think I had a drink problem. It was just a habit problem,” she said. Collins has now stopped drinking during the week and limits herself to about two or three glasses a night at the weekends.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “In view of the evidence of rapidly increasing liver disease, screening apparently healthy people, particularly those misusing alcohol, may be a worthwhile initiative.”

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