TY - JOUR
T1 - Preferences for Telephone Cancer Information and Support in People with Cancer and Carers
T2 - Attribute and Level Selection for a Discrete Choice Experiment
AU - Livingstone, Ann
AU - Engel, Lidia
AU - White, Victoria
AU - De Silva, Daswin
AU - Bucholc, Jessica
AU - Murphy, April
AU - Cook, Elaine
AU - Mihalopoulos, Cathrine
AU - Orellana, Liliana
AU - Ratcliffe, Julie
AU - Spence, Danielle
AU - McCaffrey, Nikki
AU - the 131120 Social Return on Investment (SROI) Project Team
AU - Aranda, Sanchia
AU - Fradgley, Elizabeth
AU - Hutchinson, Alison
AU - Hutchinson, Claire
AU - Livingstone, Patricia
AU - Paul, Christine
AU - Steiner, Anna
PY - 2025/6/7
Y1 - 2025/6/7
N2 - Background and Objective: Telephone cancer information and support services (CISS) deliver essential evidence-based resources for people living with cancer. This research aimed to describe how attributes and levels were developed for a future discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences for operational characteristics of a CISS, focusing on Cancer Council Victoria’s service. Methods: Using a mixed-methods approach guided by the ISPOR checklist for conjoint analysis in healthcare, initial attributes were developed using an artificial intelligence framework to analyse CISS calls (January 2018−December 2021), focus groups with people with cancer and carers using the CISS (July−August 2022), and a systematic literature review of qualitative studies. A four-stage descriptive process guided attribute and level development. An expert panel of researchers (n = 10), a CISS staff member, a person with lived experience of cancer and a consumer-only panel (n = 7) met monthly to prioritise, refine and finalise attributes by consensus. Results: Call data analysis (people with cancer n = 7701; carers n = 5500), six focus groups (people with cancer n = 10; carers n = 11) and a systematic literature review of qualitative studies generated 14 candidate attributes. The expert panels selected seven final attributes, each with three levels: follow-up call, operating hours, additional technology, operator type, operator consistency, call length and service fee. Conclusions: Transparent reporting of the discrete choice experiment design process is essential for credible interpretation. The four-stage approach enhanced the comprehensibility of the experiment, as multi-modal data ensured the selected attributes and levels accurately reflect CISS caller priorities, which may be applicable to other choice-based studies.
AB - Background and Objective: Telephone cancer information and support services (CISS) deliver essential evidence-based resources for people living with cancer. This research aimed to describe how attributes and levels were developed for a future discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences for operational characteristics of a CISS, focusing on Cancer Council Victoria’s service. Methods: Using a mixed-methods approach guided by the ISPOR checklist for conjoint analysis in healthcare, initial attributes were developed using an artificial intelligence framework to analyse CISS calls (January 2018−December 2021), focus groups with people with cancer and carers using the CISS (July−August 2022), and a systematic literature review of qualitative studies. A four-stage descriptive process guided attribute and level development. An expert panel of researchers (n = 10), a CISS staff member, a person with lived experience of cancer and a consumer-only panel (n = 7) met monthly to prioritise, refine and finalise attributes by consensus. Results: Call data analysis (people with cancer n = 7701; carers n = 5500), six focus groups (people with cancer n = 10; carers n = 11) and a systematic literature review of qualitative studies generated 14 candidate attributes. The expert panels selected seven final attributes, each with three levels: follow-up call, operating hours, additional technology, operator type, operator consistency, call length and service fee. Conclusions: Transparent reporting of the discrete choice experiment design process is essential for credible interpretation. The four-stage approach enhanced the comprehensibility of the experiment, as multi-modal data ensured the selected attributes and levels accurately reflect CISS caller priorities, which may be applicable to other choice-based studies.
KW - Telephone cancer information and support services
KW - cancer patients
KW - carers
KW - telephone support services
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105012021011&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/NHMRC/2005191
U2 - 10.1007/s40271-025-00746-6
DO - 10.1007/s40271-025-00746-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 40483383
AN - SCOPUS:105012021011
SN - 1178-1653
JO - Patient
JF - Patient
ER -
