Vitality, mental health and role-physical mediate the influence of coping on depressive symptoms and self-efficacy in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: Our aim was to determine whether the association between active coping and depressive symptoms in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was mediated by vitality, and whether diabetes and obesity could impact on this relationship. We also wanted to find out whether mental health and role-physical modulated the relationship between passive/avoidance coping and self-efficacy, and the role of liver fibrosis. Methods: Depressive symptoms (BDI-II), self-efficacy (GSE), coping (COPE-28) and quality of life (SF-12) were evaluated in 509 biopsy-proven NAFLD patients in this cross-sectional study. Mediation and moderated mediation models were conducted using the SPSS PROCESS v3.5 macro. Results: Vitality mediated the relationship between active coping and depressive symptoms (−2.254, CI = −2.792 to −1.765), with diabetes (−0.043, p = 0.017) and body mass index (BMI) (−0.005, p = 0.009) moderating the association. In addition, mental health (−6.435, CI = −8.399 to −4.542) and role-physical (−1.137, CI = −2.141 to −0.315) mediated the relationship between passive/avoidance coping and self-efficacy, with fibrosis stage (0.367, p < 0.001) moderating this association. Specifically, the presence of diabetes and significant fibrosis, and a higher BMI, were associated with greater negative impact on participant depressive symptoms or self-efficacy. Conclusion: A maladaptive coping style was associated with poorer vitality, mental health and role-physical in NAFLD patients, which along with the presence of metabolic comorbidity (diabetes and obesity) and significant fibrosis predicted more depressive symptoms or poorer self-efficacy in these patients. These results suggested incorporating emotional and cognitive evaluation and treatment in patients with NAFLD.