OBJECTIVES: Patient activation is the knowledge, skill, and confidence people have in managing their health. This study describes patient activation levels across various conditions in the US and EU5.

METHODS: Descriptive analyses were conducted using data from the 2017 US (n=75,004) and EU5 (n=62,000; France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and UK) Kantar Health PaCeR (patient-centered research) platform. Adults age 18 and over were surveyed using a stratified random sampling approach to ensure representativeness to the adult population. Patients were included if they self-reported a physician diagnosis of type 2 diabetes (T2D), depression, chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), sleep conditions, hepatitis C, nasal allergies/hay fever, or psoriasis. The Patient Activation Measure^® or PAM^® consists of four activation levels. Level 1 or “disengaged and overwhelmed” indicates the lowest activation while level 4 or “maintaining behaviors and pushing further” indicates the highest activation.

RESULTS: Patient activation levels differed across conditions and geographic regions. In the US, the highest level of patient activation was observed among patients with hepatitis C (33%), RA (32%), or nasal allergies/hay fever (31%); whereas in the EU5 the highest activation was seen among patients with T2D, hepatitis C, or RA (18% each). Across all conditions, in the US there was a significantly greater proportion of highly activated patients (level 4; ranging from 25% to 33%) compared with the EU5 (14% to 18%). Conversely, at the lowest level of patient activation (level 1), the portion of patients was similar across the regions (range 5% to 10%). At higher activation levels, there was a greater proportion of patients at higher education and income levels and patients were older and female.

CONCLUSIONS: These differences in activation by condition and region can inform messaging and interventions aimed to progress patients from one activation level to the next.