Patient Perspectives on Combination Therapy of a Once-weekly Oral Medication Plus Daily Medication for Lifestyle-related Chronic Diseases

Objective The current study investigated whether or not patients taking multiple daily oral medications for lifestyle-related chronic diseases would have positive perspectives on changing one of their medications to a once-weekly one. Methods A total of 1,071 Japanese outpatients participated in the current study. We performed a questionnaire-based survey and compared the current satisfaction with the ongoing daily oral treatment (current daily-only treatment) and an expected satisfaction with an imaginary oral treatment changing one of their daily oral medications to a once-weekly oral medication (imaginary daily-and-weekly treatment). Results Medications were taken for diabetes mellitus in 72% of the patients, for dyslipidemia in 54%, and for circulatory diseases, including hypertension, in 73%. Compared to their satisfaction with the current daily-only treatment, an expected satisfaction with the imaginary daily-and-weekly treatment was on average significantly attenuated (p<0.001, effect size d=0.49). The prevalence of a higher satisfaction score for the imaginary daily-and-weekly treatment versus the current daily-only treatment was 30% in the overall population. The prevalence was 59%, 40%, 29%, 14%, and 8% in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th quintile of the satisfaction score with the current daily-only treatment (p<0.001 for trend). Conclusion Treatment satisfaction would be on average attenuated if one of the multiple daily oral medications was changed to a once-weekly one. Improvement in the satisfaction was less expected in the subgroup that was more satisfied with the current daily-only treatment.