Abstract
Background: Self-monitoring of blood glucose helps diabetic patients adjust their management strategies proactively, thus avoiding complications which place a burden on healthcare resources. It is hypothesised that some blood glucose meter attributes may influence patients’ choice. Objective: The aim of this study is to elicit diabetic patients’ preferences for attributes associated with blood glucose meters. Methods: A cross-sectional, web-based survey of UK patients with Type 1 and type 2 diabetes was conducted and preferences for attributes associated with blood glucose meters were estimated using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) framework. Results: Type 1 respondents considered ‘time to test’ to be the most critical factor and were willing to trade a compact device (2.61 units), or convenience (1.37 units) for a device that could produce test results in under 30 seconds. Type 2 respondents preferred the low maintenance attribute and were most willing to trade a compact device (2.72 units) or convenience (1.37 units) for this attribute. Conclusions: The DCE has elicited preference weightings for five key glucose meter attributes for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic patients. Devices that provide value added features such as offline storage of data and additional data analysis will be valued by both Type 1 and Type 2 patients whereas a compact device is less valued.
Highlights
Devices that provide value added features such as offline storage of data and additional data analysis will be valued by both Type 1 and Type 2 patients whereas a compact device is less valued
Diabetes mellitus is a disease characterised by a chronic abnormal blood glucose level caused by the failure of the pancreatic insulin secretion or tissues’ resistance to insulin action
It is hypothesised that some glucose meter attributes may influence patients’ choice, and their willingness to adhere to a self-monitoring of blood glucose regimen
Summary
There were 447 responses to the survey and after removing nonqualifying responders there were 406 (90.83%) responses available for the DCE analysis (3 opted-out, 3 under 18s, 24 do not use glucose meters, 8 failed DCE screening question, 3 non-traders). Significant differences (p
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