People With Chronic Liver Disease Face More Barriers to Health Care

THURSDAY, Aug. 29, 2024 (HealthDay News) — People with chronic liver disease (CLD) have a higher likelihood of barriers to health care, according to a study recently published in Gastro Hep Advances.

Carrie R. Wong, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of California in Los Angeles, and colleagues compared the probability of barriers and recurrent acute care use among persons with CLD and persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and/or cardiovascular disease (CVD). The analysis included data from 47,037 adult participants in the National Health Interview Survey (2011 to 2017).

The researchers found that more respondents with CLD reported barriers than those with COPD/CVD (44.7 versus 34.4 percent). Barriers included unaffordability (27.5 versus 18.8 percent), transportation-related barriers (6.1 versus 4.1 percent), and organizational barriers at entry to (17.6 versus 13.0 percent) and within health care (19.5 versus 14.2 percent). Adults with CLD were more likely to experience at least one barrier (adjusted incident rate ratio, 1.12; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.01 to 1.24; P = 0.03), but not more (adjusted incident rate ratio, 1.05; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.00 to 2.71; P = 0.06). Recurrent acute care use was more likely with more health care barriers.

“CLD warrants attention as a priority condition in public policies that direct resources towards high-risk populations,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text