Cultural affiliation and the importance of health care attributes. Marketers can develop segmentation strategies for targeted patient groups.
Culturally based values are known to influence consumer purchase decisions, but little is known about how those values affect health care choices. To rectify that situation and provide health care marketers with a framework for developing culturally based segmentation strategies, the authors undertook an exploratory research project in which Hispanic-, African-, and Anglo-Americans were asked to rate the importance of 16 different health care attributes. Those attributes can be grouped under five categories: quality of physician, quality of nurses and other medical staff, economic issues, access to health care, and nonmedically related experiential aspects. Survey responses identified distinct differences in the importance attached to the various attributes by the three cultural groups. The study also looks at the impact of six demographic and social characteristics on the evaluations made by each cultural group. Those characteristics are educational level, gender, age, health status, marital status, and number of people living in the household.
Dolinsky
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College of Business Administration, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ, USA.
Stinerock
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D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008389:Marketing of Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D011357:Product Line Management / Q000379:methods; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012945:Social Values; D015144:Southeastern United States; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology