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Abstract
Background/aims Understanding patients’ perspectives of their disease can inform drug development and treatment decisions. In this study, we compared the preferences and needs of patients with moderate and severe dry eye symptoms from four different countries.
Methods A quantitative questionnaire was developed based on the self-explicated conjoint methodology and was administered to 160 patients with moderate or severe dry eye disease (DED) from Australia, Germany, UK and the USA.
Results Patients with moderate dry eye symptoms ranked ‘treatment satisfaction’ as the most important aspect, whereas ‘symptom bother’ was more relevant for those in the severe group. Both the moderate and severe groups classified treatment effectiveness as the most important treatment attribute. This result was consistent across the four countries, although US patients gave significantly higher scores than patients from other countries (p<0.001). Furthermore, patients from Australia ranked ‘treatment experience’ as significantly more important than the concern of side effects, whereas respondents from Germany exhibited the opposite trend (p<0.05 for both). The health burden of DED is reflected in the average European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions 5-level (EQ-5D) scores of 0.764 and 0.658 for patients with moderate and severe disease, respectively.
Conclusion Our results confirm that across the countries in the study, moderate and severe DED has a major impact on patients’ quality of life and daily activities. By providing insight into the patient perspective of DED, our study helps identify outcomes that are important to patients and may guide future drug development and clinical decision-making.
- dry eye disease
- disease severity
- patient preference
- EQ-5D
- drug development
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Footnotes
Presented at These results have been presented as a poster at the HTAi Congress, Vancouver, 2 June 2018.
Contributors All authors contributed to the development of the study concept, data analysis and interpretation. With regard to thedesign of this study, the authors were consulted by the Deutscher Blinden und Sehbehindertenverband e.V. (DBSV) as regulated by a contract between Novartis and DBSV. All authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article and take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole. All authors were involved in the preparation and reviewof the manuscript and approved the final version to be submitted.
Funding The sponsorship of this study and article processing charges were funded by Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland. All authors had full access to all of the data in this study and take complete responsibility for the integrity of the data and accuracy of the data analysis. All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship for this article, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole and have given their approval for this version to be published. With regard to the design of this study, the authors were consulted by the Deutscher Blinden und Sehbehindertenverband e.V. (DBSV) as regulated by a contract between Novartis and DBSV. Anna Panpurina from InPharmation also provided her assistance with the design of the study and the interpretation of the data. Writing assistance in the preparation of this article was provided by Ileana Stoica, Marie-Catherine Mousseau and Iain Hatch (Novartis Ireland). Support for this assistance was funded by Novartis.
Competing interests EM: Consultant for Alcon, Dompe, Pharm Allergan, Santen GmbH, Shire, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Thea GmbH, Visufarma. Lecturer for Alcon, Dompe, Pharm Allergan, Santen GmbH, Thea GmbH, Ursapharm GmbH, Visufarma. CC: Consultant for Alcon and has participated in advisory boards by Alcon/Novartis and Shire. PA has received research funding from Alcon and MC2 Therapeutics and has participated in advisory boards by Alcon/Novartis, Allergan, and Shire. GJ is employee of InPharmation. NC and BS are employees of Novartis. In addition to his role as employee of Novartis, NC is a member of IMI PREFER and is also involved with working groups on patient preferences.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval Our study obtained approval from the Heartland Institutional Review Board and the research conformed to the codes of both BHBIA and EphMRA. These codes of conduct stop this type of research being used as a front for marketing activities and ensure that all adverse event procedures are properly adhered to. The patient cooperation was voluntary, and they were entitled to withdraw at any stage of the process, or subsequently, to ask that part or all of the record of their interview was destroyed or deleted. The patients were advised that the information they provided was for market research purposes only, and would be treated confidentially, without reference to individual names. They were assured that any information they give would simply be added to the answers received from other respondents to provide an overall picture of views, which may be used in a scientific publication.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.