Research on the preference of community health communication service utilization by patients with cardiovascular diseases in China.

Abstract

Objectives: This study sought to examine cardiovascular patients' preferences for community health communication and to offer recommendations to boost the engagement with health communication programs.

Methods: We conducted a discrete choice experiment involving 914 cardiovascular patients, assessing their preferences across five attributes: Health information communicator, Health information communication content, Health information communication channel, Health information form, and Cost willing to pay each time. The data were analyzed using a mixed logit model to account for preference heterogeneity.

Results: The results of discrete choice model showed that patients with cardiovascular disease were more inclined to choose doctors in terms of health information transmitter preference. In the content of health communication, disease-related knowledge and healthy lifestyle knowledge are more popular. In terms of health information communication channels, offline channels are more popular than online channels. Of the health information formats, "video + audio" is the most popular, followed by "video," while "text + picture" are less popular. Payment (β=-10.624, P < 0.05) had a negative effect on service utilization of health communication activities. Preferences were heterogeneous among different subgroups.

Conclusions: Chinese patients with cardiovascular diseases prefer health information scenarios that feature physicians as communicators, disease-related knowledge as the health communication content, and low-cost, offline "video + audio" services. Policymakers are advised to consider both monetary and nonmonetary incentives to engage these patients in health information activities. The identified preference heterogeneity suggests the need for tailored policy incentive packages to effectively address the diverse needs of patient subgroups.