Development of Tailored Communication Strategies for the Senior Population

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: The aging of the US population will be the major factor driving growth in healthcare utilization, as life expectancy has increased and the Baby Boom generation moves into their 60’s.  The increase in healthcare utilization is not evenly distributed across the senior population, which encompasses a broad age range and variations in health status, life experiences, socio demographics, psycho demographics, and access to support systems.  It is unclear what impact uncertainty about the economy and healthcare reform will have on the healthcare choices and decisions senior consumers make.  No doubt the variability observed in this population in the past will manifest itself in healthcare decision making in the future.  Communication strategies will need to be tailored to the different segments in order to promote health equity in access and outcomes.

Methods:  Our team designed a segmentation study to understand what segments exist amongst the senior population and how these segments differed in their healthcare utilization, attitudes, communication preferences and decision making.  The study consisted of three phases: I) Descriptive Statistics of the 55+ population including demographics, health status and healthcare utilization trends.  This data laid the foundation for the patient parameters guiding Phase II data collection. II) Used a commercially-available source for accessing medical, hospital and pharmaceutical claims to determine the segments of consumers.  We created an analytic dataset consisting of 71,293 unique patients (2% sample from the claims databases).  Eight variables representing the result of different types of healthcare utilization decisions (e.g., number of pill days, number of physician visits) and distance-function-based methods generated mutually-exclusive segments.  Phase III) Conducted individual and group interviews with 102 seniors that met criteria for each of the identified segments.  Interviews explored life experiences, attitudes, support systems available, and decision making process and communication preferences.

Results: Six exclusive segments were identified, with five segments explored in the qualitative interviews.  The segments were descriptively named: Knowledgeable but Distracted, Proactive Preventers, Actively Aging, Multiple Condition Managers, and Centered on Health. The qualitative findings suggest differences between segments in health philosophy, motivation to engage in healthcare decision making, perceptions surrounding the healthcare system, and the desired sources of communication in the system.

Conclusions:  This research demonstrated distinctive differences in the segments in terms of healthcare utilization, the challenges faced by the segments, the messaging content that will resonate and the communication style and channel to which consumers in a segment will respond. Proactive Preventers and Actively Aging are healthier cohorts that are more focused on disease prevention and an active lifestyle.  Knowledgeable but Distracted are focused on transitioning into retirement and family needs but do experience chronic disease issues.  Multiple Condition Managers and Centered on Health have more health issues and are in need of greater support and education.

Implications for research and/or practice: While the research is descriptive in nature and should be followed by specific campaigns assessed within an experimental design framework, this work represents an initial effort to uncover the most effective and impactful ways to reach the senior population.