OBJECTIVES: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease, persistent and abnormal recurrent. The chronic and frequently recurrent characteristics of psoriasis not only reduce the patients' quality of life but also increase the cost of treatment, especially when using more expensive and effective treatment methods such as biologic agents. Willingness-to-pay of patients is an important aspect for healthcare system to enhance the treatment assessibility to those patients. This study aimed to estimate willingness-to-pay (WTP) of psoriasis patients, the research of which is limited in Vietnam.

METHODS: Cross-sectional description was conducted based on collected data from face-to-face interview with psoriatic patients at HCMC Hospital of Dermato Venerelogy from January to March of 2018. WTP has been collected by questionnaire on WTP and EQ-5D-5L questionnaire. Relevant statistical tests were performed to analyze influencing factors on WTP/QALY. All statistics were conducted by SPSS software.

RESULTS: Study sample, including 310 psoriatic patients with 58,4% males and avarage age of 48.84 ± 16.27 years, were enrolled in the study. In overall, 52.6% of patients were under high school, 68.4% lived in HCMC, 85.8% in married status. The mean duration of disease was 11.51 ± 9.82 years and the mean treatment time was 9.69 ± 8.87 years. With the average HRQoL of 0.787 ± 0.128, WTP was accounted for 179,100,000 ± 104,463,500 VND/QALY. Patients with university/college degrees has a significantly higher WTP/QALY than other groups (195.64 million VND vs 153.87 million VND, p<0,05). There was statistically negative correlations between WTP/QALY and age (r=-0.247, p=0.000).

CONCLUSIONS: Willingness-to-pay of patients was accounted for 179,100,000 ± 104,463,500 VND per QALY. Academic level and age are influencing factors on WTP/QALY.