The authors of the blog are Chris Duke, PhD, director of the Center for Consumer Choice in Health Care, and Christine Stanik, PhD, a social psychologist and senior researcher with the Altarum Institute.
Drs. Duke and Stanik believe analyzing how lower-income individuals seek health information can help create healthcare solutions that address the most acute challenges Americans face.
“New tools or behavioral strategies aiming to remove the obstacles that interfere with vulnerable people getting the care they need will be most successful if they are designed to realistically fit into the structure of people’s lives and their existing suite of behaviors,” the authors wrote. “Developing these interventions rests on a firm understanding of where people are and a commitment to meeting them there.”
Based on semistructured interviews and focus groups with 65 vulnerable healthcare consumers, Dr. Duke and Dr. Stanik were able to uncover the following four actionable insights.
1. People tend to trust their family members and friends as sources of information, so public health campaigns should engage communities and disseminate information via word of mouth. These strategies may be particularly effective among lower-income individuals.
2. Many individuals that fall into the category of “vulnerable healthcare consumer” have a lot on their plate causing them stress. Therefore, the most effective healthcare campaigns will likely provide health information in a condensed and comprehensible format, with additional details readily accessible, but not presented all at once.
3. Websites with important health information should be designed in a mobile-friendly format, with the most important information up front, since many lower-income participants use smartphones to access the internet.
4. More websites and search engines should promote health information tools — such as websites that provide patient reviews and ratings of healthcare cost and quality — when they detect users that may benefit from them. For example, the blog authors wrote, “a general search for ‘MRI Washington DC’ could automatically bring up comparisons of average costs of an MRI through different providers in the area, allowing users to benefit from a cost comparison without needing to explicitly search for it.”
To read the full blog, click here.
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