Poor disease knowledge is associated with higher healthcare service use and costs among patients with cirrhosis: an exploratory study

BACKGROUND: Optimal management of cirrhosis is complex, and patients often lack knowledge and skills, which can affect self-management. We assessed patient knowledge about cirrhosis and examined whether knowledge was associated with clinical outcomes, healthcare service use, and healthcare costs. A cross-sectional ‘knowledge survey’ was conducted during 2018–2020. We assessed patient knowledge about cirrhosis and explore whether knowledge was associated with clinical outcomes, healthcare service use, and costs. METHODS: Patients with cirrhosis (n = 123) completed a ‘knowledge survey’. We calculated the proportion of correct answers to eight questions deemed to be “key knowledge” about cirrhosis by an expert panel, and dichotomized patients as ‘good knowledge’/‘poor knowledge’. Clinical data, healthcare costs, and health-related quality of life (SF-36) were available. RESULTS: 58.5% of patients had ‘good knowledge’ about cirrhosis. Higher education level was associated with higher odds of having ‘good knowledge’ about cirrhosis (adjusted-OR = 5.55, 95%CI 2.40–12.84). Compared to patients with ‘poor knowledge’, those with ‘good knowledge’ had a higher health status in the SF-36 physical functioning domain (p = 0.011), fewer cirrhosis-related admissions (adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.59, 95%CI 0.35–0.99) and emergency presentations (adj-IRR = 0.34, 95%CI 0.16–0.72), and more planned 1-day cirrhosis admissions (adj-IRR = 3.96, 95%CI 1.46–10.74). The total cost of cirrhosis admissions was lower for patients with ‘good knowledge’ (adj-IRR = 0.30, 95%CI 0.29–0.30). CONCLUSION: Poor disease knowledge is associated with increased use and total cost of healthcare services. Targeted educational interventions to improve patient knowledge may be an effective strategy to promote a more cost-effective use of healthcare services. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12876-022-02407-6.