Preliminary analysis of perioperative peripheral intravenous catheters preference and willingness to pay in patients with obesity

Patients with obesity frequently encounter difficult intravenous access during the perioperative period. Traditional short peripheral intravenous catheters are commonly linked to an increased risk of repeated punctures and associated complications. Although novel longer peripheral intravenous catheters, including mini-midline and midline catheters, may improve vascular access reliability, evidence remains limited on how patients with obesity value their risks, benefits, costs, and device characteristics. To quantify preferences for peripheral intravenous catheter attributes, marginal willingness to pay for these attributes, and predicted choice probabilities for predefined catheter profiles among perioperative patients with obesity. A cross-sectional stated-preference study using a face-to-face discrete choice experiment. The metabolic and bariatric surgery department of a tertiary public hospital in eastern China. A total of 215 perioperative patients with obesity completed the survey, yielding 1,290 choice observations. Seven catheter attributes were examined in the discrete choice experiment: maximum dwell time, insertion site, total cost, blood sampling, complication risk, catheter length, and insertion time. The choice data were analysed using a mixed logit model. The primary patient preference parameters of interest were marginal willingness-to-pay estimates for changes in catheter attributes and predicted choice probabilities for short peripheral intravenous, mini-midline, and midline catheter profiles. Complication risk was the most important attribute, followed by blood sampling, total cost, and catheter length, with relative importance scores of 31.85%, 25.93%, 20.98%, and 11.13%, respectively. Patients were willing to pay ¥1,366.18 CNY ($198.0 USD) to reduce complication risk from 50% to 10%, ¥659.35 CNY ($95.6 USD) to reduce it from 50% to 30%, and ¥1,112.27 CNY ($161.2 USD) for blood sampling. They required ¥477.64 CNY ($69.2 USD) in compensation to accept a 25 cm rather than a 3 cm catheter. The mini-midline catheter profile had the highest predicted choice probability (50.3%), followed by the midline catheter profile (42.3%) and the short peripheral intravenous catheter profile (7.4%). Changes in cost primarily shifted predicted choice probabilities between the mini-midline and midline catheter profiles. Perioperative patients with obesity placed greater importance on a lower complication risk, blood sampling, lower cost, and shorter catheter length. The mini-midline and midline catheter profiles had higher predicted choice probabilities than the short peripheral intravenous catheter profile. These findings provide an essential patient-preference evidence base for vascular access decisions, nursing practice, institutional procurement planning, and future reimbursement assessments. Not applicable.