The study will be conducted using validated and established protocols for undertaking DCEs. A literature review was undertaken to assess what the most important considerations where for patients when making decisions about the treatment they receive for MIBC. Using this literature search as a starting point, discussion groups with relevant healthcare professionals and service users were undertaken to decide on the final attribute and levels for the questions. Five attributes were selected through an iterative process - Body image, Life expectancy, Side-effects from treatment, Living as bladder cancer survivor, and Sexual wellbeing~The study is divided into three stages:~Interviews with experienced healthcare professionals and service users to finalise attributes and levels to be used for the questionnaire~A representative sample of patients (~10) will be asked to complete the questionnaire in addition to a brief unstructured interview to assess understanding (e.g. readability and ease of completing the questionnaire)~Necessary changes based on feedback from the pilot study will be applied before the main study is carried out
Through our study, we aim to understand the most important factors for patients when they decide on the type of treatment they receive for MIBC. Our study consists of a discrete choice experiment (DCE): a type of questionnaire used to elicit preferences in the absence of data. DCEs are frequently used in oncological research to elicit preferences from participants without directly asking them to state their preferred options. Participants undertaking our DCE questionnaire will presented with a series of alternative hypothetical scenarios containing several variables or attributes (5), each of which may have a number of variations or levels.