Association between steatotic liver disease and post-traumatic stress symptoms in the Fukushima health management survey

We investigated the association of steatotic liver disease (SLD) and metabolic dysfunction-associated SLD (MASLD) with the occurrence of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) after the Great East Japan Earthquake in participants of the Fukushima Health Management Survey (FMHS), a cohort that was initiated after the disaster. This cohort study used data from the FMHS (2011–2018) and included 16,392 participants aged 40–90 years (7505 men and 8,887 women) who were able to be assessed for PTSS. SLD was defined by the fatty liver index. To further identify the association between PTSS and SLD/MASLD, Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence interval (CI) for PTSS. Results of multivariable Cox regression modeling for the entire participant population revealed that SLD (hazard ratio: 1.109, 95% CI: 1.002–1.227) had a significant positive association with the occurrence of PTSS. In the multivariate Cox regression model incorporating SLD classification, MASLD (1.154 [1.036–1.286]) was significantly positively associated with the occurrence of PTSS. This study suggests that SLD/MASLD may be a risk for the development of PTSS after a disaster.