OBJECTIVES:

The aim was to assess treatment preferences from the perspective of psoriatic patients treated with oral therapies and phototherapy in Spain.

METHODS:

Observational cross-sectional study (COEPSO Study) was performed in 17 Spanish centres. The study included moderate to severe psoriatic patients naïve to biological therapies. To assess the patients’ preference to treatment, a discrete choice experiment (DCE) questionnaire was designed. DCE included 6 factors: reduction of body surface area (BSA) by psoriasis, reduction of the intensity of itching, route of administration, tolerability (gastrointestinal disorders during the first two weeks of treatment) and safety profile (risk of tumours and risk of severe infection appearance). An orthogonal design was applied to design the questionnaire. A multinomial logit model was fitted to analyse the DCE responses considering as relevant the criteria with p-values<0.05. To assess the impact of each factor in patients’ preference, the relative weight index was estimated.

RESULTS:

A sample of 119 psoriatic patients fulfilled the DCE. DCE results show as key factor for treatment safety profile: (1) avoidance of an increased risk of severe infections (p<0.001; weight:28.30%); (2) avoidance of an increased risk of tumours (p<0.001; weight:23.33%); (3) reduction of BSA by psoriasis (p<0.001; weight:17.87%); (4) route of administration (p<0.001; weight:13.38%); (5) risk of gastrointestinal disorders tolerability (p<0.001; weight:11.85%); (6) reduction of the intensity of itching (p<0.001; weight:5.16%).

CONCLUSIONS:

The most important characteristics of a psoriasis treatment from psoriatic patients’ perspective are a good safety profile and tolerability, associated with a reduction of BSA affected by psoriasis and a reduction of the intensity of itching, with oral administration.