Empowerment of Medical Consumers Based on Attitude Surveys
Naoya Fujiwara (Senior Researcher, Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
Haruhiko Nobayashi (Senior Research Fellow, Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Policy Research Institute)
(No.17: Published May 2004)
In recent years, patients and the general public (hereafter referred to as "healthcare consumers") have rapidly increased their awareness of healthcare. Against this backdrop, there is a growing movement to advocate "patient-centered medicine. What do healthcare consumers think about this "patient-centered medicine" and how do they act? In this study, after constructing a behavioral model of medical consumers regarding medicine, we conducted an empirical analysis of the current status of medical consumers' involvement in and knowledge of disease and medicine, their behavioral processes, and factors influencing their behavioral processes.
According to a questionnaire survey conducted on 842 general consumers and 767 patients (belonging to 9 patient groups), it was found that medical consumers desire the realization of "patient-centered medicine," want to be proactively involved in medicine, and have a certain degree of knowledge. They were also willing to act proactively by gathering information and communicating with doctors on their own. This indicates that the groundwork for realizing "patient-centered medicine" has been laid. However, the diversity of healthcare consumers was found, with involvement, knowledge, and behavioral processes differing greatly depending on the presence or absence of disease, generational differences, and whether or not they belong to a compliant group such as a patients' association. In addition, problems emerged, such as a lack of knowledge, a sense of dependence on physicians, and dissatisfaction with the way physicians responded during treatment, which were obstacles to smooth communication with physicians.
The empirical studies also verified that involvement influences knowledge and knowledge influences communication as well as involvement influences communication directly. In other words, it was found that people who wanted to be actively involved in their own health care and the treatment of their illnesses had higher levels of knowledge about illnesses and medications, and that people with higher levels of involvement and knowledge were more likely to ask questions and make requests to their doctors about illnesses and medications.
The next step in realizing "patient-centered healthcare" is to encourage healthcare consumers to become more involved and knowledgeable about healthcare, to participate proactively in healthcare, and to communicate with healthcare professionals. In other words, empowerment of healthcare consumers is needed. Possible measures to promote empowerment include (1) independence of healthcare consumers, (2) improvement of healthcare consumers' health literacy (ability to understand healthcare), and (3) building trust based on information sharing and mutual understanding between healthcare consumers and healthcare professionals.