Current status of shared decision making for rheumatoid arthritis treatment in Japan: a web-based survey on physicians and patients

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Objective To assess the current status of shared decision making (SDM) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) clinical practice in Japan from the perspectives of physicians and patients. Methods A web-based survey was conducted to recruit patients with RA who were prescribed, for the first time, a conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (csDMARD) or a biological drug/Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, and physicians who prescribed these treatments to patients with RA. The SDM Questionnaire-Physician version (SDM-Q-Doc) and the 9-item SDM Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9) were used to assess the SDM levels of physicians and patients, respectively. The scale ranged from 0 to 100, and higher scores indicated better SDM status. Results The responses from 107 physicians who treat patients with RA, 107 patients prescribed a csDMARD, and 110 patients prescribed a biological drug/JAK inhibitor were collected. The mean SDM score for SDM-Q-Doc was 74.5 when physicians decided to prescribe a csDMARD and 77.2 when they decided to prescribe a biological drug/JAK inhibitor. However, the mean SDM score for SDM-Q-9 was 62.3 when patients were prescribed csDMARDs and 72.6 when they were prescribed biological drugs/JAK inhibitors. Conclusions The results showed differences in SDM level between patients and physicians and, from the patient perspective, between treatment types.