Table 1

Attributes and levels describing drug treatment options in the DCE experiment

Attributes and attribute definitions	Attribute levels	Level descriptions
Efficacy *Expected improvement and status of disease activity based on DAS28	1. Good DAS28 response—remission achieved	DAS28 improvement by 3.0 points Achievement of remission (DAS28<2.6)
	2. Good DAS 28 response—low disease activity achieved	DAS28 improvement by 2.0 points Achievement of low disease activity (2.6<DAS28≤3.2)
	3. Moderate DAS28 response	DAS28 improvement by 1.0 point Low disease activity or remission cannot be achieved (DAS28 remains>3.2)
Safety Probability of a serious adverse event	1. Very rare 2. Rare 3. Uncommon	5 out of 100 000 patients 5 out of 10 000 patients 5 out of 1000 patients
Patient's preference Patient's expressed level of agreement with treatment choice	1. Treatment favoured 2. Neutral 3. Treatment disfavoured
Cost-effectiveness †ICER, in costs per QALY gained	1. Favourable 2. Moderate 3. Unfavourable	15 000 EUR /QALY 30 000 EUR /QALY 75 000 EUR /QALY
Overall medication costs per year, in local currency	1. Low 2. Medium 3. High	800 EUR/year 8000 EUR/year 14 000 EUR/year

*In the choice sets, changes of the individual DAS28 components (tender joint count, swollen joint count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, patient global assessment of disease activity) were also presented.
† ICER in costs (Euro) per QALY gained for the selected treatment compared with usual care.
‡Economic attributes and levels were presented in local currencies.28
DAS28,28 joint disease activity score; DCE, discrete choice experiment; EUR, Euro; ICER , incremental cost-effectiveness ratio; QALY, quality-adjusted life year.