Analysis of treatment goal alignment between Japanese psoriasis patients and their paired treating physicians

Appropriate goal-oriented treatment strategies are important for optimal treatment outcomes and may prevent under-treatment. As treatment goals vary by patient, a study to examine treatment goals is more meaningful when patients and their physicians are paired. There has not been any study that examines alignment between paired psoriasis patients and physicians in real-world clinical practice using skin clearance as a treatment goal indicator.

To evaluate treatment goal alignment between psoriasis patients and their paired physicians, and to quantitatively identify factors associated with goal misalignment.

The study was a nationwide multicenter cross-sectional observational study. Subjects were physician-reported moderate-to-severe psoriasis patients with a history of systemic treatments, directly paired with their treating physicians. Subjects completed surveys independently. Treatment goals included seven categories, and patient-physician pairs were grouped as 'aligned' or 'misaligned' when the answers were the same or different, respectively.

A total of 425 pairs (mean response rate, 94.7%) of responses were collected from 54 sites (64.8% general practitioners or clinics; 35.2% university or large hospitals). Treatment goal misalignment was found in 67.9% of the patient-physician pairs. The misalignment was mainly 'patient predominant' (60.9%) indicating that patients had higher goals ('complete clearance') than physicians. In the multivariate logistic regression analyses, patients' treatment expectation for 'complete clearance' [odds ratio (OR): 1.927; 95% confidential interval (CI): 1.232-3.016] and physician rating of 'level of understanding on treatment options' being low (OR: 1.552, 95% CI; 1.082-2.227) were significant factors for treatment goal misalignment.

The majority of treatment goal misalignment was found between paired psoriasis patients and their treating physicians in Japan. The most important contributing factors to misalignment were patients' treatment expectation for 'complete clearance' and physicians' rating of their patients' 'level of understanding on treatment options' being low.