Patient Preference for Once-Weekly Dosing in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Japan

Background: Among several factors that impair adherence to available therapies in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is the complexity of the dosing regimen. Moreover, the value of a once-weekly (QW) administration of oral medications for T2DM compared to once, twice, or thrice daily (QD, BID, TID) regimens is unclear. This study aims to identify subgroups and patient characteristics correlated with a preference for QW dosing compared to daily dosing using survey-based methods. Methods: This was a cross-sectional online survey study among patients with T2DM in Japan. Patients with T2DM were categorized into one of the three groups: (1) patients on treatment with oral hypoglycemic agent(s) only, (2) patients on combination treatment with oral hypoglycemic agent(s) and insulin, and (3) patients diagnosed with or suspected to have T2DM with no current or past experience with T2DM drug treatment (treatment naïve). Preliminary logistic regressions and classification and regression tree analysis (QW/QD dosing preferences as the dependent variable) were conducted to identify key predictors of dosing preference, followed by an evaluation of frequencies and trends in dosing preferences by the identified factors (subgroups). Results: Current treatment regimen, age, and work status were identified as the major demographic factors that were most predictive of QW preference. While, overall, 55.5% preferred QD and 33.3% preferred QW, the preference toward QW is higher in a specific cohort of patients that is treatment naïve (i.e., patients diagnosed with T2DM and/on diet/exercise therapy with no current or past experience with T2DM drug treatment) than who are on treatment, younger (age ≤64 years old), working full-time than part-time, and/or currently taking 0 or 1 drugs or more than 6 drugs (68.67% versus 30.12%). The most commonly cited reasons for QW preference were (1) “less burdensome because they didn’t have to take it every day” (47.8%), (2) “less psychological burden” (14.6%), and (3) “forget to take it less often”(12.5%). Conclusion: Patients with T2DM vary in terms of preference for dosing regimens. Daily dosing was preferred over QW dosing in the overall population, however, preference for QW was higher in younger, full-time working, treatment naïve subjects, who are/or currently taking 0 or 1 drugs or more than 6 drugs.