PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Consumer Behavior”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 523 records · Page 29Linked to original sources

The customer has escaped.

Every company makes choices about the channels it will use to go to market. Traditionally, the decision to sell through a discount superstore or a pricey boutique, for instance, was guided by customer demographics. A company would identify a target segment of buyers and go with the channel that could deliver them. It was a fair assumption that certain customer types were held captive by certain channels--if not from cradle to grave, then at least from initial consideration to purchase. The problem, the authors say, is that today's customers have become unfettered. As their channel options have proliferated, they've come to recognize that different channels serve their needs better at different points in the buying process. The result is "value poaching." For example, certain channels hope to use higher margin sales to cover the cost of providing expensive high-touch services. Potential customers use these channels to do research, then leap to a cheaper channel when it's time to buy. Customers now hunt for bargains more aggressively; they've become more sophisticated about how companies market to them; and they are better equipped with information and technology to make advantageous decisions. What does this mean for your go-to-market strategy? The authors urge companies to make a fundamental shift in mind-set toward designing for buyer behaviors, not customer segments. A company should design pathways across channels to help its customers get what they need at each stage of the buying process--through one channel or another. Customers are not mindful of channel boundaries--and you shouldn't be either. Instead, they are mindful of the value of individual components in your channels--and you should be, too.

Choice Behavior↗

[Anxiety prevention among schoolchildren].

The FRIENDS programme is a prevention and early intervention programme, which teaches children strategies to cope with anxiety and challenging situations. This paper examines the social validity of the German version of the FRIENDS programme using data from a large-scale study on the prevention of anxiety disorders in schoolchildren, which is funded by the Dr. Karl-Wilder Stiftung. In this paper, data of 208 schoolchildren (aged 9 to 12 years) are used. Results show that the children and their parents were highly satisfied with the FRIENDS programme. Childrens attendance and completion of their homework assignments were very high. Both the children and their parents rated relaxation exercises and thinking helpful thoughts as being more useful for the children than other skills. Treatment acceptability correlated significantly with the childrens clinical outcome. The implications of our findings for future research are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Integrating benefits decision making.

Integrated employee benefit decision making helps employees use their benefits more wisely and identify opportunities to balance their immediate benefits needs (such as health care) and future benefits needs (such as retirement). This article discusses how employers can overcome employees' behavioral barriers to making integrated employee benefit decisions by changing the ways benefits are communicated and employees are presented with action decisions. Undertaking these steps allows employers to not only improve their employees' overall financial perspectives, but also furthers plan sponsors' goals of actively promoting personal responsibility with respect to retirement funding and changing employee behavior with respect to controlling health care costs.

Choice Behavior↗

Health care consumerism: engaging the real buyers--employees.

Many employers have begun moving toward health care consumerism strategies designed to encourage employees to take more responsibility for their health care and the cost of that care. Recent surveys suggest ways employers can ensure their consumerism strategies succeed in engaging employees and, ultimately, encourage employees to change their behavior. This article describes what those surveys reveal about employer and employee perspectives on consumerism and suggests steps employers can take to align their interests with those of their employees in order to manage the demand for and use of health care.

Choice Behavior↗

[Evaluation of a weight reduction program: slender without diets].

"Schlank ohne Diät" ("Weight-Reduction Without Diet") is a strategy to normalize body weight, by influencing multiple factors that appear to influence and promote obesity. The base line of therapy is the modification of nutritional habits. Self-control, especially monitoring and recording of calorie intake and the loss of energy by physical activities is the key that trains every client to change his nutritional habits and helps to reduce body weight and keep normal body weight stable. In a retrospective study, including 134 persons, 84 clients (62,69%) were able to reduce body weight, 9 clients (6,72%) reached starting point of weight and in 30,60% (41 clients) during the participation in this methods an increase of body weight was seen. On an average 120 clients achieved a weight reduction of 5.98 kg during the participation in this method. The loss of weight ranged from 1 to 31 kg per person.

Adult↗

Effects of parent training on families of children with mental retardation: increased burden or generalized benefit?

Parents of children with mental retardation have become increasingly involved in special education, including training programs to facilitate teaching at home. Although some writers have argued that families accrue generalized psychological benefits of such participation, others have cautioned that the result may be increasing the burden of child-rearing. Forty-nine families of children with mental retardation were assessed before and after a parent training program, on a variety of parent, marital, and family measures. Parents reported high satisfaction with the program and showed small but statistically significant decreases in reports of symptoms of depression, parent and family problems, overall family stress, and dissatisfaction with the family's adaptability. Family characteristics were also predictive of teaching at home one year following training. The families that reported doing the least productive teaching had entered training reporting greater child-related stress and lower satisfaction with the marriage and the family.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Dental anxiety. Assessment, reduction and increasing patient satisfaction.

A conceptual schema relating a number of patient and dentist variables to patient anxiety reduction and satisfaction was presented. Evidence was examined that indicates that patient compliance with preventive and treatment regimens can be influenced in a major fashion through variables that reduce anxiety and increase satisfaction with the dentist. An accounting of several studies that investigated behavioral strategies for reducing patient stress during dental procedures indicated that recorded relaxation instructions and the active distraction provided by playing a video game can be effective anxiety-reducing treatments. Attempts to find other useful behavioral strategies were unsuccessful--only relaxation and distraction were consistently successful in reducing stress in moderately anxious patients. Observations of dentist-patient interaction in the context of the behavioral strategy studies indicated that the doctor-patient relationship was an important dimension associated with patient anxiety reduction and satisfaction. A series of investigations were conducted to elucidate the dentist behaviors that were associated with these variables. We found that the dentist behaviors most closely associated with patient satisfaction were those portraying empathy, friendliness, and a calm, competent image to the patient. The most important behavior associated with anxiety reduction was the dentist's explicit promise to prevent pain. Other dentist behaviors--friendliness, being calm, giving moral support--were seen as providing an appropriate behavioral context in support of the pledge to prevent pain. Finally, we considered the need for the dentist to be aware of patient anxiety in order to effectively deal with it. If nothing else, asking about anxiety gives the patient permission to express concerns that are present. If the patient is not anxious, asking about anxiety will not produce it. Two types of measuring instruments were considered in relation to assessing anxiety. The Dental Anxiety Scale, a brief four-item scale, was judged to be a reliable and valid method for assessing general dental anxiety. In addition, a new interval scale of anxiety response was discussed for those occasions on which it is important to assess the patient's response to treatment.

Anxiety↗

What do patients really want? Redefining a behavioral science curriculum for family physicians.

This study replicates the design reported by Schwenk et al and addresses a key methodologic issue in their paper. The original questionnaire by Schwenk et al was administered to one half of the sample of patients, while the other half completed a reworded questionnaire asking what they "want" in the area of psychosocial help, as opposed to what they think their family physician "would" do (the original wording). The hypothesis was that expectations for physician involvement will be higher if patients are asked what they want as opposed to what they expect. Patients were asked to complete a four-page questionnaire, alternating the questions described by Schwenk et al with the reworded questionnaire, in which they were required to rank the level of involvement requested from their physician regarding 45 psychosocial problems (level 1 = no involvement, level 4 = major involvement). Results using the originally worded questionnaire closely paralleled findings of Schwenk et al, whereas asking people what they "wanted" showed statistically significant differences in 18 of the 45 items. The paper concludes with discussion of patient preferences vs patient expectations, with implications for the behavioral science curriculum.

Attitude↗

User reaction to current contents: behavioral, social, and management sciences.

The Missouri Institute of Psychiatry Library Current Contents Service offers free dissemination of ISI's Current Contents: Behavioral, Social and Management Sciences to 144 mental health professionals employed at twelve locations in the Missouri Division of Mental Health system. The service includes free document delivery of up to 100 articles per subscription. Sixty percent of the participants in the project are sharing copies of CCBSMS with their colleagues. Operation of the service is described, and data on degree of use are analyzed by user professional orientation and hospital location. The most frequently cited journal titles are compared to lists of heavily used titles derived from other sources. These lists of titles are offered as empirical guides to frequently consulted behavioral science journals. After six months experience participants appear to be highly satisfied. Ninetytwo percent responding to an evaluative questionnaire want to continue the service another year.

Behavioral Sciences↗