Publications

List of publications, posters and presentations

Orme ME, Miners A, Sabin C, Fisher M, Alfred S, Rogatto F, Reilly G, Perard R. What HIV Treatment Characteristics are Important to the Patient? Results from a Prospective UK Survey (P13)

ABSTRACT:

Background: The development of effective single-tablet regimen for anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has led to the prospect of simplified treatment for HIV patients. As part of a wider project assessing patient preferences, we set out to collect patients’ general opinion on which aspects of treatment were most important to them. Methods: The data for this UK-based, post-hoc analysis were obtained from a prospective, multi-country, web survey, which was set up to collect data from HIV patients across Europe. A steering committee consisting of clinicians, nurses, pharmacists, patient group representatives, and academics guided the initial survey design. HIV patient organisations provided feedback on the pilot survey. The final section of the survey consisted of a series of questions regarding treatment attributes with a five-point Likert scale to rate their importance as well as an open question prompting the patient for their opinion on important treatment characteristics. Results: From the UK survey (June to October 2014), opinions were obtained from 291 respondents who are currently receiving ART. 70% of the respondents are men who have sex with men and 17% are female. Across this sample, the median duration of treatment is 5 (range 0-27) years, age 44 (21-69) years, and time since diagnosis 8 years (0-30). Most patients rated ‘the shape, size and colour of tablets do not change’ as not important (54%), and ‘fewer clinic visits to monitor treatment or change tablets’ and ‘fewer boxes to carry around’ as important (30% and 28%). ‘Other people cannot tell that I am taking HIV medicines’ and ‘HIV tablets can be taken together at the same time’ were rated as very important by 37% and 51% of respondents respectively. For all five of these questions, women choose a higher importance rating more frequently than men. For the open question “What other HIV treatment characteristics are important to you?” fewer side effects and, in particular, concerns over sleep problems, were mentioned most frequently. Mental health problems were a concern to some patients. Other responses related to the inconvenience of being tied to mealtime dosing, a desire for flexible dosing and fewer, easier to swallow, smaller tablets. Conclusion: These responses provide evidence that UK patients have a preference for simple, flexible treatment regimens that are not tied to mealtimes and have a low risk of sleep problems.

Presented at the 21st Annual Conference of the British HIV Association, 21-24 April 2015, Brighton, UK.

Citation: BHIVA 2015

BHIVA poster P13