Role of illness perception and self-efficacy in lifestyle modification among non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients

Table 1 Description of disease perceptions, illness emotional representation, perceived illness consequences, self-efficacy and reported nutritional habits among non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients

Variable (n = 146)	Items	% of patients who responded 4 and above (range 1-5)
Disease perceptions
Time line perception	1. How long do you think your NAFLD will continue?	53.6%
Treatment perception	2. How much do you believe that there is a treatment that can help in reducing or healing NAFLD	72.6%
Symptoms	3. How much do you experience symptoms due to NAFLD?	9.0%
Illness understanding degree	4. How well do you feel that you understand what NAFLD is?	42.8%
Emotional representation	5. How concerned are you about having NAFLD?	60.0%
	6. How much does your illness (NAFLD) affect you emotionally? (e.g., does it make you angry, scared, upset or depressed?)	20.0%
Illness consequences	7. To what extent having a NAFLD affects your everyday life?	13.7%
	8. To what extent do you believe that NAFLD is a severe health problem?	59.6%
	9. To what extent do you believe that NAFLD is a disease?	50.0%
	10. To what extent do you anticipate having medical complications due to NAFLD?	46.6%
Self-efficacy	11. I'm sure that I can make the time and persist in performing physical activity even if I'm very busy at work or at home	63.0%
	12. I'm sure that I can persist keeping low fat diet	71.9%
	13. I'm sure that I can persist in keeping low sugar diet	67.1%
	14. I'm sure that I can persist in keeping low sodium diet	72.6%
	15. I'm sure that I can persist in eating smaller portions during my meals	64.1%
	16. I'm sure that I can avoid buying snacks and candies	61.0%
	17. I'm sure that I can persist in keeping a food diary	51.7%
Nutrition habits1	18. I make an effort to reduce the amount of fat in my diet	88.8%
	19. I make an effort to reduce the amount of calories in my diet	67.5%
	20. I make an effort to reduce the amount of sugar and sweats in my diet	83.3%
	21. I make an effort to reduce soft drinks consumption (with sugar not diet)	89.5%
	22. I make an effort to reduce red meat and sausages consumption	65.1%
	23. I make an effort to increase vegetables consumption	79.4%

¹Percent of respondents that answered YES to each item. NAFLD: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Table 2 Description of the study sample (mean ± SD unless otherwise stated)

Variable (units; normal range)	Total (n = 146)
Gender (%; males)	54.1
Nutrition habits (score)	4.73 ± 1.45
BMI (kg/m2; 20-25)	31.56 ± 4.62
Age (yr)	47.76 ± 11.68
Education (%; high school and above)	66.7
Smoking (%; current smoker)	12.3
Time since diagnosis (%; one year or less)	36.0
HOMA-IR (score)	6.10 ± 2.79
HbA1C (%; 3.9-6)	5.65 ± 0.46
AST (U/L; 5-40)	32.66 ± 14.95
Glucose (mg/dL; 70-110)	85.62 ± 10.63
ALT (U/L; 5-39)	50.16 ± 34.12
GGT (U/L; 6-28)	48.29 ± 50.60
Albumin (g/L; 35-50)	45.05 ± 2.75
Total Cholesterol (mg/dL; 150-200)	187.97 ± 38.08
Ferritin (ng/mL; 7.1-151)	148.77 ± 129.31
Metabolic syndrome (%)	28.7
Lipid-lowering medications (%)	28.8
Antihypertensive medications (%)	20.5

Blood tests were available to 87 subjects.

Table 3 Bivariate correlations between variables of illness perception, emotional representation, self-efficacy and perceived nutritional habits (n = 146)

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Nutrition habits	-
2	Illness consequences perception	0.19a	-
3	Emotional representation	-0.05	0.58b	-
4	Self efficacy	0.20a	-0.02	-0.09	-
5	Treatment perception	-0.02	0.06	0.26b	0.27b	-
6	Symptoms	0.13	0.45b	0.24b	-0.14a	-0.10	-
7	Time line perception	0.12	0.21a	0.09	-0.27b	-0.32b	0.19a	-
8	Illness understanding degree	0.27b	0.38b	0.22b	0.03	0.00	0.04	0.05
	mean	4.73	3.19	3.03	3.76	3.97	1.80	3.14
	SD	1.45	0.73	1.06	0.72	0.99	1.08	1.14

^aP < 0.05;

^bP < 0.01.