Patient preferences in treatment options of ulcerative colitis: a discrete choice experiment

Since the number of medical treatment options for Ulcerative Colitis (UC) has expanded over the last decades, patients and physicians face challenges regarding decisions about the medication options. We aimed to identify patients' preferences about their UC treatment options in the Netherlands. Furthermore, we assessed after how many failed treatment options, patients are willing to consider surgical treatment.

We conducted a web-based, multicenter, discrete choice experiment (DCE) among adult UC patients. Patients were repeatedly asked to choose between two hypothetical medicinal treatment options. The choice tasks were based on administration route, administration location, chance of symptom reduction (on short and long term) and chances on infection and other adverse events. Data were analyzed by using Hierarchical Bayes estimation.

A total of 172 UC patients participated in the DCE. More than half were anti-TNF experienced (52.9%). The chance of symptom reduction after one year (relative importance (RI) 27.7 (95% CI 26.0-29.4)) was most important in choosing between medicinal treatments, followed by the chance of infection (RI 22.3 (21.4 - 23.3)) and chance of symptom reduction after eight weeks (RI 19.5 (18.3 - 20.6)). Considering surgical treatment, nineteen patients (14.3%) would not even consider surgery after failing eight treatment options without any new available therapies left. Nine patients would consider surgery before trying any treatment options.

We found that symptom reduction after one year was the most important attribute in choosing between treatments in UC patients. These outcomes can help understand the trade-offs and preferences of UC patients.