Factors Influencing Patient Preferences for Phototherapy: A Survey Study

Abstract

There is limited literature regarding patient preferences for phototherapy. Patients may consider different forms of phototherapy depending on a multitude of factors important to them, including safety, cost, efficacy, insurance issues, and convenience. This study aimed to determine which form of phototherapy-in-office UVB, at-home UVB, home tanning, salon tanning, and sunbathing-was preferred by survey participants and the reasons for their preferences. Additionally, participants were asked which forms of phototherapy they considered safest and most efficacious, cost-effective, and convenient.Cutis. 2022;110:E3-E7. Phototherapy-particularly UVB phototherapy, which utilizes UVB rays of specific wavelengths within the UV spectrum-is indicated for a wide variety of dermatoses. In-office and at-home UVB treatments commonly are used, as are salon tanning and sunbathing. When selecting a form of phototherapy, patients are likely to consider safety, cost, effectiveness, insurance issues, and convenience. Research on patient preferences; the reasons for these preferences; and which options patients perceive to be the safest, most cost-effective, efficacious, and convenient is lacking. We aimed to assess the forms of phototherapy that patients would most consider using; the factors influencing patient preferences; and the forms patients perceived as the safest and most cost-effective, efficacious, and convenient. MethodsStudy Participants-We recruited 500 Amazon Mechanical Turk users who were 18 years or older to complete our REDCap-generated survey. The study was approved by the Wake Forest University institutional review board (Winston-Salem, North Carolina).