Taxonomy of the burden of treatment: a multi-country web-based qualitative study of patients with chronic conditions

 Blogger's Note: cancer was included in 'chronic conditions' - 8% of respondents

open access

Background

Management strategies for patients with chronic conditions are becoming increasingly complex, which may result in a burden of treatment for patients. To develop a Minimally Disruptive Medicine designed to reduce the burden of treatment, clinicians need to understand which healthcare tasks and aggravating factors may be responsible for this burden. The objective of the present study was to describe and classify the components of the burden of treatment for patients with chronic conditions from the patient’s perspective.

Results

From June 22, 2013, to March 30, 2014, 5,492 people connected to the Internet tool, and 1,345 people (24 %) identified themselves as eligible for the study; 1,267 (94 %) completed the demographic and clinical part of the survey, and 1,053 (78 %) answered the open-ended questions about the burden of treatment (Fig. 1). The mean (SD) age was 46 years and 766 (73 %) were women (Table 1). In total, 671 patients resided in France (64 %), 140 in the United States (13 %), 66 in Canada (6.3 %), 56 in the United Kingdom (5.3 %), 34 in Spain (3.2 %), 30 in Australia (2.8 %), and 56 (5.3 %) in a different country. Self-reported chronic conditions included rheumatologic diseases (33 %), cancer (8 %), and well-controlled psychiatric illnesses (13 %). The mean (SD) number of chronic conditions was 2.4 (1.6, range 1–10). A total of 662 patients (63 %) had two or more chronic conditions.....

Table 1. Characteristics of participants (n = 1,053) 

Fig. 2. Taxonomy of the burden of treatment

 

 

Conclusions

Data from our qualitative study of patients with different chronic conditions, in different contexts and countries, provides a comprehensive taxonomy of the burden of treatment for such patients. Results could inform the development of cross-cultural instruments to assess the burden of treatment for patients with chronic conditions and new interventions to reduce the burden of treatment, ultimately moving towards minimally disruptive medicine [6].