Observational Study
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World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2022; 14(3): 612-622
Published online Mar 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i3.612
Interrelationship between physical activity and depression in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Ali A Weinstein, Leyla De Avila, Saisruthi Kannan, James M Paik, Pegah Golabi, Lynn H Gerber, Zobair M Younossi
Ali A Weinstein, Leyla De Avila, James M Paik, Pegah Golabi, Lynn H Gerber, Zobair M Younossi, Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research, Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA 22042, United States
Ali A Weinstein, Saisruthi Kannan, Global and Community Health, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, United States
Lynn H Gerber, Zobair M Younossi, Center for Liver Disease, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, Falls Church, VA 22042, United States
Zobair M Younossi, Inova Medicine, Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA 22042, United States
Author contributions: Weinstein AA, de Avila, L, Golabi P, Gerber LH, and Younossi ZM designed the research study; Paik JM analyzed the data; and Weinstein AA, Kannan S, de Avila L, and Paik JM wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by Betty and Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research.
Institutional review board statement: This study is the analysis of de-identified, publicly available data and does not constitute human subjects research, therefore it does not need institutional review board approval.
Informed consent statement: This is a secondary data analysis of a publicly available deidentified data, therefore, informed ethics committee approval and informed consent is not relevant here. The original data collection adhered to all ethical standards (ethics committee approval and informed consent).
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Zobair M Younossi is a consultant to BMS, Gilead, AbbVie, Intercept, and GSK. All other authors report no proprietary or commercial interest in any product or concept discussed in this article.
Data sharing statement: Data are available by request from https://knit.ucsd.edu/ranchobernardostudy/access/
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zobair M Younossi, AGAF, FACG, FACP, MD, Chairman, Professor, Inova Medicine, Inova Health System, Claude Moore Health Education and Research Building 3300 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA 22042, United States. zobair.younossi@inova.org
Received: October 19, 2021
Peer-review started: October 19, 2021
First decision: December 3, 2021
Revised: December 21, 2021
Accepted: February 20, 2022
Article in press: February 20, 2022
Published online: March 27, 2022
Processing time: 156 Days and 11.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Physical inactivity and depressive symptoms are common in individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Individuals with both NAFLD and depression are more likely to be sedentary than individuals without NAFLD or in individuals with NAFLD without depressive symptoms. Because this group is at high risk for poor outcomes, practitioners should screen for the coexistence of depressive symptoms and NAFLD. This group should receive appropriate interventions aimed at increasing both participation and levels of intensity of physical activity. It is therefore desirable that individuals with NAFLD should be screened for the presence of depressive symptoms to help determine appropriate interventions.