Preference of Acromegaly Patients for Treatment Attributes in Spain

Overview

Journal Endocrine

Specialty Endocrinology

Date 2023 Jul 28

PMID 37507554

Authors

Carmen Fajardo

Cristina Alvarez-Escola

Betina Biagetti

Rogelio Garcia-Centeno

Raquel Ciriza

Laura Sanchez-Cenizo

Marcos Diaz-Munoz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: Acromegaly is a rare disease caused by increased growth hormone secretion and a subsequent increase in insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) levels. Patients display multiple comorbidities that affect their quality of life (QoL). Treatment aims to maintain good biochemical control, tumour control and reduce the risk of comorbidities; however, their impact on QoL has been overlooked until recently. We interviewed patients to explore their preferences with regard to treatment attributes.

Design: A cross-sectional study based on interviews and a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in a Spanish cohort.

Methods: Adult patients diagnosed with acromegaly ≥1 year before the start of the study and under treatment were included. Treatment attributes were collected from patient testimony during face-to-face interviews. Then, a DCE was performed to elicit patient preferences for certain treatment attributes.

Results: Sixty-seven patients completed the study. QoL improvement was the most important treatment attribute (37%), followed by IGF-I control (20%), blood sugar control (17%) and tumour control (13%). Secondary attributes were pain associated with the route of administration (7%), diarrhoea (2%), administration method (2%) and storage conditions (2%). We then calculated the theoretical share of preference for existing treatments, based on the individual preference utility for each attribute and level. Pegvisomant obtained the highest share of preference overall, and the highest preference as a second-line treatment (53 and 95%, respectively).

Conclusions: QoL greatly influences patient treatment preference. Since acromegaly patients are informed and aware of their disease, treatment choices should always be shared with patients.

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