atient preference data for maintenance inhaler attributes can be used to identify a preference order of inhalers in different treatment classes, according to a study published in Respiratory Medicine. With the hypothesis that understanding patient preferences for treatment attributes may help in selecting an optimal maintenance inhaler from the patient perspective, researchers elicited patient preferences for maintenance inhaler device and medication attributes through a discrete choice experiment and used these in risk-benefit assessments to calculate predicted choice probabilities for 14 dual-combination maintenance inhalers in the classes of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/long acting beta agonist (LABA) and long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA)/LABA inhalers for COPD, as well as two categories for asthma. _ e most important attributes across all treatment classes were reduced exacerbations and faster onset of action. Also across all classes, patients were willing to tolerate an extra exacerbation per year in exchange for a decrease in medication onset of action from 30 to 5 minutes. For patients with COPD, using an ICS/LABA (n = 574), budesonide/ formoterol fumarate dihydrate (160 μg/4.5 μg) pMDI had the highest predicted choice probability (PrCP; 56.6%), and for those using a LAMA/LABA inhaler (n = 217), tiotropium/ olodaterol (2.5 μg/2.5 μg) soft mist inhaler had the highest PrCP (42.3%).

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