Disease Burden and Treatment Preferences Amongst Postmenopausal Women with Severe Osteoporosis in Greece

Kyriakos Souliotis; Christina Golna; Christina Poimenidou; Tatiana Drakopoulou; Memi Tsekoura; Damon Willems; Vasileios Kountouris; Polyzois Makras

doi:10.2147/PPA.S385351

Disease Burden and Treatment Preferences Amongst Postmenopausal Women with Severe Osteoporosis in Greece

Patient Prefer Adherence. 2023 Jan 10:17:107-118. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S385351. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Kyriakos Souliotis^{1

2}, Christina Golna², Christina Poimenidou², Tatiana Drakopoulou³, Memi Tsekoura², Damon Willems⁴, Vasileios Kountouris⁵, Polyzois Makras⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Social and Education Policy, University of Peloponnese, Corinth, Greece.
² Research Department, Health Policy Institute, Maroussi, Greece.
³ Greek Bone Health Association "Petalouda", Perama, Greece.
⁴ Market Access Lead, UCB Pharma, Brussels, Belgium.
⁵ External Engagement Lead, UCB Pharma, Athens, Greece.
⁶ Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes and Department of Medical Research, 251 Hellenic Air Force & VA General Hospital, Athens, Greece.

Abstract

Objective: The objectives of this study were to elicit self-reported health status, quantify osteoporosis-related burden, and understand preferences for treatment attributes among postmenopausal women with severe osteoporosis in Greece.

Methods: Postmenopausal women with self-reported severe osteoporosis, defined as having suffered at least one osteoporotic fracture and reporting a T-score of ≤-2.5, were asked to evaluate their health status, osteoporosis management, and disease-related physical, emotional, and financial burden. Participants were also asked to rate a series of treatment attributes and state their preference for unlabeled anabolic treatments, based on scenarios describing key treatment characteristics.

Results: Approximately one third (31%) of the 186 participants who responded to the survey in full had been living with severe osteoporosis for more than 10 years. Three quarters of participants (72%) considered their overall quality of life (QoL) to be worse than it had been 10 years prior, and the vast majority (89%) attributed this deterioration to osteoporosis. Direct, out of pocket, disease-related costs of at least €100 per month were reported by 86% of participants. Patients attached the greatest value to a treatment that would decrease probability of future fractures, followed by increase in bone density, safety, and mode and frequency of administration. When asked to select their preferred treatment scenario between two anabolic treatments, 70% of participants opted for the scenario that shared treatment characteristics with romosozumab over a scenario that shared treatment characteristics with teriparatide.

Conclusion: Our study revealed that osteoporosis placed a considerable burden on QoL for postmenopausal women with severe osteoporosis in Greece. Patients reported valuing treatment efficacy, measured through reduction in future fractures and increase in bone density, and safety, as key treatment attributes.

Keywords: burden of disease; osteoporosis; patient preference; quality of life.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by UCB Pharma and Amgen Inc.