New study of diabetes patients across five European countries launched by GfK Healthcare

Aug 27 2009

GfK Healthcare’s Roper Global Diabetes Programme, the definitive global perspective on diabetes, announced today the launch of its enhanced 2009/2010 Western Europe Patient Study. Offering a holistic perspective of the diabetes patient across five European countries, with robust insights into patients’ attitudes and behaviors towards treatments, testing and lifestyles, the study now makes available to marketers greater reporting frequency and focus across a variety of broad-based and niche diabetes patient groups.

As the largest diabetes patient study of its kind – focused on delivering direct-from-patient reporting of actual patient attitudes, behaviors and treatment practices, rather than therapy-driven insights gleaned from patient record research – the Roper Western Europe Diabetes Patient Study covers France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The newly enhanced offering for 2009/2010 provides a significant improvement over the historical biennial reporting. Conducted as six separate monthly waves, beginning in October 2009 and running through March 2010, each wave of the study will focus on a different diabetes patient group, including Type 1 patients, Type 2 insulin users and users of new medications, to name a few.

The new Roper study retains its heritage, which for more than a decade has delivered robust data, projected to represent the diabetes patient market, the reliability of core Roper questions that have been tracked over time and across countries and the ability for clients to add their own proprietary questions. Here, the new multiwave format allows marketers to purchase and add proprietary questions on a monthly basis, similar to an omnibus.

Deliverables include topline data at the end of each month, incorporating optional charts and graphs. After the final wave, the collective data from the six waves will be rolled up, weighted to be representative and projected so that it is comparable to previous Roper studies for trending purposes. A syndicated report will be issued by May 2010. Customization of reports and presentations of the data will also be available.

“The changes we have made to the format and frequency of our long-standing Roper study were the direct result of consultation with our Western European clients,” said Ian Pike, director of GfK Healthcare’s Roper Global Diabetes Group based in the United Kingdom. “Traditionally, our study mainly provided strategic insights, but now, with the level of detail gleaned from the separate waves covering each of the patient groups, the study provides more utility and supports the ability for diabetes marketers to address tactical issues among patients.”

About the Roper Global Diabetes Programme

GfK Healthcare’s Roper Global Diabetes Programme includes a series of multiclient tracking studies with diabetes patients conducted annually in the United States, Canada and Western Europe, as well as periodic studies in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. The 2009/2010 Roper Western Europe Diabetes Patient Study provides key information on every facet of diabetes, from patient attitudes and demographics to product usage, to source of care and the doctor/patient relationship. The study, to be fielded in six monthly waves across five European countries from October 2009 through March 2010, will be conducted via phone interviews with a sample of 1,500 diagnosed diabetes patients for the three random sample waves (months 1, 3, 5) and with a sample of 500 patients for each of the three niche target group waves (months 2, 4, 6).