Patient Preferences for Medications in Managing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Objectives: To quantify patients' maximum acceptable risk (MAR) of urinary and genital tract infections (UGTI) in exchange for benefits associated with treatments for managing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: In a discrete choice experiment, adult patients with T2DM and currently on metformin and/or sulphonylurea (first-line treatments) were asked to choose between 2 hypothetical medications defined by 6 attributes: years of medication effectiveness in controlling blood glucose, weight reduction, UGTI risk, risk of hospitalization from heart failure, all-cause mortality risk, and out-of-pocket medication cost. We used latent class logistic regression parameters to estimate the conditional relative importance of treatment attributes and MAR of UGTI for various treatment benefits.

Results: A 2-class latent class model was identified as the best fit for the responses from 147 patients. The first class (49% of sample), termed as "survival-conscious," stated that they were willing to accept 46% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2%-90%) UGTI risk in exchange for a reduction from 6% to 1% in all-cause mortality risk. The second class (51% of sample), termed as "UGTI/cost-conscious" were willing to accept significantly lower (6%; CI: 2%-11%, and 5%; CI: 2%-8%) UGTI risk in exchange for the same reduction in all-cause mortality and hospitalization risks, respectively.

Conclusions: On average, patients were willing to trade higher UGTI risk for a more effective medication. Our findings suggest that physicians should present the benefits and potential side effects of all available treatments and consider patient preferences in their treatment recommendations.