Mei J, Jin YD, Xie YC, Huang PP, Deng Y, Chen Y. Timeliness-incentive home health management for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(28): 119134 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.119134]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ying Chen, Chief Nurse, Principal Investigator, Professor, Health Medicine Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 74 Linjiang Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400010, China. 300492@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Article-Type of This Article
research-article
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
Share the Article
Mei J, Jin YD, Xie YC, Huang PP, Deng Y, Chen Y. Timeliness-incentive home health management for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. World J Gastroenterol 2026; 32(28): 119134 [DOI: 10.3748/wjg.119134]
Jia Mei, Yu-Di Jin, Yun-Cai Xie, Ping-Ping Huang, Yu Deng, Ying Chen, Health Medicine Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, China
Author contributions: Mei J contributed to analysis and interpretation of data, drafting of the manuscript, statistical analysis, and study design; Chen Y contributed to study concept, study supervision, critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; Jin YD, Xie YC, and Huang PP contributed to study design, acquisition of data; Deng Y contributed to acquisition of data.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 2024-55.
Clinical trial registration statement: The study registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry. The registration identification number is ChiCTR2500096119.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from each patient included in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Data sharing statement: The participant data is solely for this research and will not be made public. If the editor requires it, the original data can be provided via email.
Corresponding author: Ying Chen, Chief Nurse, Principal Investigator, Professor, Health Medicine Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 74 Linjiang Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing 400010, China. 300492@hospital.cqmu.edu.cn
Received: January 20, 2026 Revised: February 8, 2026 Accepted: April 7, 2026 Published online: July 28, 2026 Processing time: 173 Days and 19.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The guidelines of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommend lifestyle modification as the first-line treatment for patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD); however, only 30% achieve sustained weight loss; precision nursing strategies are therefore needed to enhance behavioural maintenance and long-term outcomes.
AIM
To establish a home-based management protocol grounded in timeliness-incentive theory and demonstrated its clinical nursing effects through rigorous practice.
METHODS
From August 20 to September 3, 2024, 108 MASLD patients at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were randomly allocated by sealed-envelope to seven-month timeliness-incentive or conventional home care; weight, hepatic steatosis, enzymes, lipids, Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II and Exercise of Self-Care Agency scores were assessed pre/post, with SPSS 26.0 deeming two-tailed P < 0.050 significant.
RESULTS
After seven months, the first group had less liver fat than the second group (P < 0.010). Their weight, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol went down (P < 0.050), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol went up (P < 0.001). The first group also had better scores for eating, health duty, exercise, stress control, self-care duty, self-care skills, and health knowledge (P < 0.010).
CONCLUSION
Home health management interventions guided by timeliness incentive theory demonstrate significant improvements in liver function, lipid profiles, health-related behaviors, and self-management capabilities among patients with MASLD. These findings support the clinical utility and recommend further promotion of this intervention model.
Core Tip: In a home-based "timeliness-incentive" randomized clinical trial, 108 metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease patients receiving home care plus micro, immediate rewards for 7 months showed markedly lower liver fat, weight, aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase, lipids and higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol vs usual care, alongside superior diet, exercise and self-management scores, proving that low-cost timeliness-incentive tele-health can reverse metabolic-liver injury and should be widely adopted.
