Physical activity beneficial to NAFLD patients

For nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients, performing physical activity appears to confer some protection against the development of fibrosis, sarcopenia, and cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a study.

The study included 11,690 NAFLD patients who underwent a health screening program where they were evaluated for physical activity (metabolic equivalent task [MET]-min/week).

Researchers assessed liver fibrosis using the fibrosis-4 index, NAFLD fibrosis score, and FibroScan-AST score; sarcopenia using multi-frequency bioelectric impedance analysis; and CVD risk using the atherosclerotic CVD (ASCVD) risk score and by calculating the coronary artery calcium (CAC) score.

A trend of significantly decreasing prevalence of fibrosis, sarcopenia, high probability of ASCVD, and high CAC score was observed with increasing quartiles of physical activity (p_trend<0.001).

In a fully adjusted logistic regression model, physical activity >600 MET-min/week (≥third quartile) was independently associated with a lower likelihood of fibrosis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.59, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.40–0.86), sarcopenia (aOR, 0.72, 95 percent CI, 0.58–0.88), ASCVD (aOR, 0.58, 95 percent CI, 0.46–0.73), and high CAC score (aOR, 0.32, 95 percent CI, 0.13–0.83; p<0.05 for all).

Further analysis confirmed that increasing amounts of physical activity had a protective association with the risks of fibrosis, sarcopenia, and ASCVD (p_trend<0.001). 

Among lean NAFLD patients and those with sarcopenic obesity, physical activity was also linked to lower risks of fibrosis and ASCVD (p<0.05 for all).