Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) would accept a higher risk of serious infections and blood clots willingly, if that meant an improvement in pain, daily activities, and administration convenience, Rieke Alten, MD, said during her research presentation at ACR Convergence on November 13.

Dr. Alten is head of the department of internal medicine, rheumatology, clinical immunology, and osteology at Schlosspark-Klinik, University Medicine Berlin in Berlin, Germany.

“Preferences of RA patients were driven by benefits and risks of RA treatments, with no single attribute dominating the decision making,” Dr Alten explained.

Through an anonymous online choice experiment conducted between September and October 2021, patients with RA chose their RA treatment attributes and made trade-offs between them. Patients with RA, older than 18 years of age living in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, or the United States, participated in an online survey in which they answered questions about hypothetical treatments.

From the data pool of 2,090 participants, 42% were women and the mean age was 45.2 years.

The scores revealed different priorities between men and women, Dr Alten said. While men gave more importance to reducing pain and negative effects on semen parameters, women were most concerned by risk of blood clots and serious infections. All other attributes were of lower importance, with no single attribute getting more than 30% votes.

Older patients placed more importance on frequency and mode of treatment administration than younger patients.

“These findings emphasize the importance of considering the entire treatment profile, including benefits, risks, and administration to support shared decision-making between providers and patients,” Dr Alten concluded.

Reference:
Alten R. 1680: What trade-offs are acceptable to rheumatoid arthritis patients during treatment selection? Presented at: American College of Rheumatology Convergence. November 13, 2023. San Diego.