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. 2017 Mar 28:11:661-669.
doi: 10.2147/PPA.S121032. eCollection 2017.

Patient experience with intravenous biologic therapies for ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis

Susan C Bolge  1 , Helen M Eldridge  2 , Jennifer H Lofland  3 , Caitlin Ravin  3 , Philip J Hart  4 , Michael P Ingham  1
Affiliations

Patient experience with intravenous biologic therapies for ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis

Susan C Bolge et al. Patient Prefer Adherence. .

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe patient experience with intravenous (IV) biologics for ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, or ulcerative colitis.

Methods: Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted in 405 patients with these autoimmune diseases who were receiving an IV biologic to treat their disease.

Results: On a 7-point scale (1= not at all satisfied; 7= very satisfied), mean satisfaction with IV medication was rated 6.1; 77% of patients rated satisfaction as 6 or 7. The most frequently perceived benefits of IV therapy were related to supervision provided by health care professionals. Most patients (82%, n=332) preferred their IV medication to subcutaneous injection. The three most common reasons for preferring IV were not wanting to self-inject (43%), less frequent dosing (34%), and preference for administration by a health care professional (24%). African-American/black patients had a stronger preference for IV administration than Caucasian/white patients (97% vs 80%, P<0.05) and a greater dislike of needles/self-injection (71% vs 40%, P<0.05). Hospital outpatient departments were not rated as well as physician in-office infusion. Only half (49%) of the patients reported that both they and their physician equally influenced the choice to switch from subcutaneous to IV therapy, and only 30% were given a choice of infusion center.

Conclusion: Users of IV biologics are highly satisfied with their medications and perceive the opportunity for health care provider interaction at their infusion facilities as an advantage of their regimen. These findings support continued need for IV therapeutic options and shared decision-making between patients and physicians while selecting biologic treatments.

Keywords: anti-TNF; biologic; intravenous; patient experience; preference; subcutaneous.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure At the time of the research SC Bolge, JH Lofland, C Ravin, and MP Ingham were employees of Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC and H Eldridge was an employee of Janssen Services, LLC. SC Bolge, JH Lofland, MP Ingham, and H Eldridge are stockholders of parent company Johnson & Johnson. PJ Hart was an employee of the Medaxial Group. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

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