Socioeconomic status and health disparities drive differences in accelerometer-derived physical activity in fatty liver disease and significant fibrosis.

Abstract

Background and aimsThe cornerstone of clinical management of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are lifestyle changes such as increasing physical activity (PA) aimed at improving cardiometabolic risk. To inform NAFLD prevention and treatment guidelines we aimed to: (i) quantify the role of PA on lowering the risk for NAFLD and fibrosis; (ii) characterize NAFLD and fibrosis association with PA in the context of socioeconomic environment.MethodsA sample of 2648 participants from the NHANES 2003-2006 was selected to develop survey weighted multivariable logistic regression models for predicting NAFLD and significant fibrosis, diagnosed non-invasively via fatty liver index (FLI) and fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index. The PA measures were obtained from a hip-worn accelerometer.ResultsThe predictive model for NAFLD showed AUC of 0.687 and a decrease of 43% in NAFLD risk with moderate vigorous PA (MVPA) (OR = 0.569, p ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate the role of PA as a protective factor against the presence of NAFLD and significant fibrosis. Protective levels of PA in NAFLD differ by races.