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Multiple criteria decision analysis swing weighting (SW) and discrete choice experiments (DCE) are appropriate methods for capturing patient preferences on treatment benefit‐risk trade‐offs. This paper presents a qualitative comparison of the 2 methods.

We review and critically assess similarities and differences of SW and DCE based on 6 aspects: comprehension by study participants, cognitive biases, sample representativeness, ability to capture heterogeneity in preferences, reliability and validity, and robustness of the results.

The SW choice task can be more difficult, but the workshop context in which SW is conducted may provide more support to patients who are unfamiliar with the end points being evaluated or who have cognitive impairments. Both methods are similarly prone to a number of biases associated with preference elicitation, and DCE is prone to simplifying heuristics …