Liver cirrhosis is a pathological stage characterized by diffuse fibrosis, pseudolobule formation, and intrahepatic and extrahepatic vascular proliferation. There are no obvious clinical symptoms during the compensatory period. However, the decompensated period is characterized by portal hypertension and severe liver dysfunction, and patients often die of multiple organ failure due to ascites, gastrointestinal bleeding, sepsis, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome and canceration (Smith et al., 2019). According to the estimated global liver disease-related mortality in 2015, liver cirrhosis and liver cancer cause approximately 1.16 million and 780,000 deaths every year, ranking 11th and 16th worldwide, respectively; together, they account for 3.5% of total global deaths (Asrani et al., 2019). Because of the long course of disease, poor prognosis, multiple complications and high cost of treatment, patients with liver cirrhosis experience serious physical and mental problems; are prone to anxiety, depression and other negative emotions; and usually adopt negative coping mechanisms to deal with stress events. Such negative psychology may be a huge burden on