BACKGROUND AND AIMS The disease-related knowledge levels in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are important because it could affect the self-management ability and adaptive coping strategies. We set out to determine whether higher levels of disease-related knowledge reduce medical acceleration.

METHODS We evaluated the levels of disease-related knowledge in all patients at the time of enrollment for SNUBH IBD cohort using the validated IBD-KNOW questionnaire. Clinical data were prospectively collected and the factors related to step-up therapy were analyzed. Step-up therapy was defined as the new use of corticosteroids, immunomodulators, or biologics after the enrollment.

RESULTS Between April 2017 and January 2019, 298 patients were enrolled (mean age, 39.8 years; males, 69.5%); 193 patients (64.8%) had ulcerative colitis and 105 (35.2%) had Crohn's disease. The mean disease duration was 35.8 months. During the mean follow-up of 14.7 months, 90 patients (30.2%) underwent step-up therapy and 208 (69.8%) underwent continuous therapy. The prevalence of continuous therapy increased with increasing IBD-KNOW scores (p for trend = 0.019). Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that high IBD-KNOW scores (≥ 16) (hazards ratio [HR]: 0.498, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.276-0.897, p = 0.020) was negatively associated with the step-up therapy.

CONCLUSIONS Higher disease-related knowledge could reduce the requirement of step-up therapy in IBD. The IBD-KNOW score was independently predictive of step-up therapy.