What side effects of dry eye treatment are most important to patients?

Researchers utilized a Discrete Choice Experiment to determine which factors are important to patients with dry eye disease (DED) when choosing medications to potentially improve adherence.

Patients diagnosed with DED (n = 139) were given 10 choice tasks where they were asked to choose between their current medication (or no medication), and 2 hypothetical medications that varied based on 5 attributes, including duration of burning/stinging, duration of blurring, time to medication effectiveness, medication frequency, and out-of-pocket cost.

There were 2 groups with distinct preferences. The duration of burning/stinging and cost were the most important attributes for both groups whereas the duration of blurring was the least important.

There was an 18 percentage-point increase in predicted uptake of a medication when the duration of burning/stinging decreased to a few minutes from 2 hours.

“Predicted uptake for new medications was lowest for those on medication with well-controlled symptoms and highest for those who were not on medication and could not control their symptoms effectively,” the authors wrote.

Reference
Ozdemir S, Yeo SWJ, Lee JJ, et al. Patient Medication Preferences for Managing Dry Eye Disease: The Importance of Medication Side Effects. Patient. 2022;doi: 10.1007/s40271-022-00586-8. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35697974.