Health Management and Economics Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Department of Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Management, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
PLoS One. 2018 Mar 28;13(3):e0193090. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193090. eCollection 2018.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, progressive, and common disease affecting the central nervous system in young adults. Interferon-beta is one of the most widely used medicines to reduce the disease progression. Given the variety of drugs in this category, we aimed to identify the preferences of patients for IFN-β that play an important role in policymaking in this area. Discrete choice experiment method was used in the present study to identify and prioritize those attributes that are of interest to MS patients and increases the utility of the use of IFN-β in their treatment. Questionnaires were given to 358 patients in Isfahan-Iran, who were asked to choose between the two treatment choices in each scenario. The results of the logit model showed that the changes in the efficacy lead to the most changes in the patient utility. Changes in side effects and ease of injection have been placed in the next rankings. Considering the drug attributes considered more desirable by patients can lead to greater medication adherence and possibly better treatment outcomes. Also, pharmaceutical companies, the health ministry, the Food and Drug Administration, insurance organizations, and neurologists can benefit from this information in production and importation, policymaking, and prescription.
多发性硬化症是一种影响年轻人中枢神经系统的慢性、进行性常见疾病。干扰素-β是最广泛用于减少疾病进展的药物之一。鉴于该类别中的药物种类繁多，我们旨在确定患者对 IFN-β的偏好，这些偏好对该领域的决策制定具有重要作用。本研究采用离散选择实验方法来确定和优先考虑那些对 MS 患者感兴趣并增加 IFN-β在其治疗中使用效用的属性。问卷分发给了伊朗伊斯法罕的 358 名患者，要求他们在每个场景中在两种治疗选择之间进行选择。逻辑模型的结果表明，疗效的变化导致患者效用的变化最大。副作用和注射便利性的变化被排在了下一个排名。考虑到患者更看重的药物属性，可以提高药物的依从性，并可能获得更好的治疗效果。此外，制药公司、卫生部、食品和药物管理局、保险公司和神经科医生可以在生产和进口、决策制定和处方方面受益于这些信息。
