Background: The preference of patients in the choice of pen injectors for Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) is an important issue for treatment adherence. This study, based on discrete choice experiment (DCE), aimed to elicit patients' preferences of the characteristics of all pen injectors available in France.
Research design and methods: A DCE with 12 choice sets was developed to measure the preferences of 6 attributes: pre-injection steps, injection device, dose release, post-injection display, dose reduction method, and dose counter. A mixed logistic model was used to determine the preference ranks and calculate utility score.
Results: The study involved 155 women who had previous experience with the use of injector pens with an average age of 34.1 years. Statistically significant results showed that the most essential characteristics were dose confirmation (p < 0.0001), dose counter with digits (p < 0.0001), multi-use pen (p < 0.0001) and ready-to-use pens (p < 0.0001). Estimation of the utilities showed statistically significant difference in favor of Gonal-f®/Pergoveris® (reference modalities) versus other pens, and the largest difference was with Rekovelle® [95% CI:-1,37;-0.85], and Bemfola® [95% CI:-2.25;-1,52].
Conclusions: This study show that respondent preferred pen that are ready to use, can be used multiple times, have dose injection confirmation, and display the dose with digits.
Keywords: Assisted reproductive technology; France; discrete choice experiment; infertility; patient preference; pen injectors.