Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39119552›Full record

ArticleDigital health

Online medical consultation in China: Demand-side analysis of obese patients' preferences and willingness-to-pay for online obesity consultations.

Yaolin Hu, Jian Wang, Yuanyuan Gu, Stephen Nicholas, Elizabeth Maitland, Jianbo Zhou

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Article in Digital health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Yaolin HuSchool of Economics, Peking University, Beijing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2361-7444
Jian WangDong Fureng Institute of Economic and Social Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Yuanyuan GuMacquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie Business School & Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Stephen NicholasHealth Services Research and Workforce Innovation Centre, Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6770-7105
Elizabeth MaitlandSchool of Management, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Jianbo ZhouSchool of Economics, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objective: With obesity a major health concern and call on healthcare resources in China, we explored the preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for obesity OMC, including the influencing factors behind WTP and preferences. Method: We recruited 400 obese participants to undertake a discrete choice experiment (DCE) and the contingent value method (CVM) survey. We used CVM to measure obese participants' WTP for one-click services (OCS) and used DCE to estimate obesity participants' preferences and WTP for OMC with different attributes. Results: Obese participants were willing to pay more than RMB80 on average for OCS, and more than 50% of participants had a WTP over RMB50 and 5% had a WTP over RMB300, reflecting the strong willingness of Chinese obese patients to pay for OMC. Educational background, income, ethnicity, previous OMC experience and accessibility to offline hospitals with different levels impacted WTP. The relative importance score of attributes in descending order was cost, doctors' hospital level, doctors' level, online waiting time, consultation time and consultation form. Obese patients preferred lower cost, doctors from higher-level hospitals, doctors with higher expertise levels, shorter waiting time and consultation duration, and telephone consultation were preferred. 30-min waiting time, 15-min consultation duration and telephone consultation were the most economically efficient set we found. Conclusion: To maximize health resources, provincial tertiary and municipal hospitals face different paths to developing obesity OMC platforms. We encouraged young doctors to use OMC. OMC regulators should implement consumer protection policies to optimize OMC pricing and address potential 'unfair' pricing.

Indexed as

contingent value methoddiscrete choice experimentobesityOnline medical consultationpreferencetelehealthtelemedicine

Identifiers

PMID39119552
PMCPMC11307359

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.