Abstract

Objective: To examine the knowledge, perceptions, and predictors of palliative care among American adults with chronic disease using nationally representative data.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,506 respondents (≥ 18 years old) with at least one chronic disease from the cycle 2 of the 2018 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). The respondents selfreported level of knowledge about palliative care and patient portal utilization were pooled to preform descriptive and logistic regression analyses using Stata 17.0.

Results: Overall, 64.14% of American adults with chronic illness had never heard of palliative care and 61.89% of them did not utilize patient portals. Among those who reported knowledgeable about palliative care, 31.3% of them thought that palliative care was the same as hospice, 38.88% of them linked palliative care to death automatically. Respondents who utilized patient portals more than three times a year were 34% (p = .033) more likely to report knowledgeable about palliative care than nonusers of patient portals.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates significant low-level of knowledge about palliative care among people with chronic disease. Given the positive association between patient portal utilization and health literacy about palliative care, healthcare professionals should educate and empower patients to use patient portals which may help enhance the knowledge about palliative care and thereby utilization of palliative care in this population.