Objective:To report the entire process of developing attributes and levels for preference studies on in vitro fertili-zation(IVF)treatment,and to provide a reference for the development of preferences and attribute levels of the discrete choice ex-periment(DCE)research in China.Methods:Conduct a systematic review of literature related to preferences for in vitro fertiliza-tion(IVF)treatments to determine conceptual attributes and interview outlines.In July 2022,recruit 20 relevant patients and doc-tors for one-on-one interviews to extract key attributes from the interview content.Invite 5 experts to clarify the attributes and levels through expert consultation.Conduct a pilot study to test the reasonableness of the attributes and levels.Results:Through literature review,12 relevant literatures were reviewed and 5 conceptual attributes were identified.8 situational attributes were determined in the stage of qualitative interviews.Travel time,the attitude of doctors,and the continuity of doctors were excluded with the help of expert consultations.Based on the previous literature and development principles,a reasonable level range was assigned to the 5 in-cluded attributes.5 attributes were identified through a pilot study,including the number of visits per cycle,side effects,treatment cost per cycle,doctor-patient information communication,and clinical pregnancy rate.Conclusion:Developing attributes and lev-els is a crucial and indispensable step of DCE studies.However,relevant studies are limited in China and no consensus for develo-ping attributes and levels has yet been formed in the field of DCE.Therefore,it is necessary to develop relevant manuals or expert consensus in the future to gradually improve the quality of DCE studies.
Health Technology AssessmentIn Vitro FertilizationDiscrete Choice ExperimentAttributeLevel
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
