Knowledge is Healing Power for IBD, Says Science

Patients with more disease knowledge have lower healthcare costs, less anxiety about the disease, more compliance to treatment, fewer physician visits, and use more adaptive coping strategies, according to research published in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

Lower healthcare costs are important because IBD is an expensive disease. On an annual basis, patients with IBD incurred a greater than three-fold higher direct care cost compared with non-IBD people and more than twice the out-of-pocket costs. The financial burden of IBD is highest in the first year following diagnosis, according to another study published in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.?