Treatment Preference Among People With Cystic Fibrosis: The Importance of Reducing Treatment Burden

There is a growing consensus that the perspective of the patient should be considered in the evaluation of novel interventions. What treatment outcomes matter to people with cystic fibrosis (CF), and what trade-offs would they make to realize these outcomes? Adults attending a specialist CF center were invited to complete an online discrete choice experiment (DCE). The DCE required participants to evaluate hypothetical CF treatment profiles, defined by impact on lung function, pulmonary exacerbations, abdominal symptoms, life expectancy, quality of life, inhaled medicine usage, and physiotherapy requirement. Choice data were analyzed, using multinomial logit and latent class models. One hundred and three people with CF completed the survey (median age, 35 years; range, 18-76 years); 52% were female; mean FEV % predicted, 69% [SD, 22%]). On average, an improvement in life expectancy by 10 years or more had the greatest impact on treatment preference, followed by a 15% increase in lung function. However, it was shown that people would trade substantial reductions in these key outcomes to reduce treatment time or burden. Preference profiles were not uniform across the sample: three distinct subgroups were identified, each placing markedly different importance on the relative importance of both life expectancy and lung function compared with other attributes. The relative importance of treatment burden to people with CF, compared with life expectancy and lung function, suggests it should be routinely captured in clinical trials as an important secondary outcome measure. When considering the patient perspective, it is important that decision-makers recognize that the values of people with CF are not homogeneous.