First and Foremost Battle the Virus: Eliciting Patient Preferences in Antiviral Therapy for Hepatitis C Using a Discrete Choice Experiment

From the patients' point of view, sustained virological response is the most essential criterion for choosing an HCV therapy. It was ranked at the highest, dominating all side effects and modes of administration. Furthermore, this study proved that patients consider both the probability of occurrence and the severity of treatment-induced side effects. Results clearly point to valuation of probabilities that is separate from that of severity.