A comparison of three methods to generate a conceptual understanding of a disease based on the patients’ perspective

Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes

Table 5 Comparison of the time invested for each method evaluated

Task	CE interviews (N = 12)	Social media review (N = 100 posts)	GCM (N = 16)
Development of study protocol and other materials^a	5 days	1 day	1 day
Recruitment of subjects	15 days (includes time to schedule interviews)	0 days	5 days
Data collection	10 days	1 day	5 days
Data analysis	5 days	3 days	1 day
TOTAL	35 days	5 days	12 days

CE concept elicitation, GCM group concept mapping
^aIf approval were sought for this study from the UK’s NHS ethics review board, this would have added approximately 6–12 weeks to the study timelines. Timeline for ethics approval varies depending on the country where the research is to be conducted