Questionnaire survey of Japanese patients with inflammatory bowel disease and physicians on shared decision making in advanced therapy: A web-based PAIR survey

With the recent increase in available treatment options for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), shared decision-making (SDM) has gained considerable importance. To address potential disparities in patient and physician priorities, we conducted a survey for clarify these perspectives.

Patients with IBD and physicians treating IBD were asked to complete an online questionnaire focused on key factors influencing drug selection and preferred drug administration methods.

Responses were obtained from 400 patients (327 with ulcerative colitis and 73 with Crohn’s disease) and 155 physicians. Among the factors in drug selection, physicians assigned significantly higher importance scores for experience with the drug than did patients. The expected time-to-onset of drug effects was significantly different between patients and physicians. Regarding preferences for drug administration method, patients and physicians assigned the highest acceptability scores for once-daily oral administration. For intravenous and subcutaneous routes, patients’ scores were significantly lower than those of physicians’ scores. Notably, 86.0% of patients and 62.0% of physicians preferred oral administration as the most preferred method. However, preferences varied based on treatment experience: 34.7% of patients with prior experience with subcutaneous injection preferred this method.

Patients and physicians generally shared similar priorities for drug selection; however, physicians emphasized their experience with the drug over patient preferences. Although the number of patients with prior treatment experience preferred intravenous or subcutaneous injections, oral formulations remained the preferred choice for both patients and physicians.