Patients’ familiarity with, trust in and willingness to pay for traditional Chinese medicine in Chinese community health care centres
Fanli Meng, Zhuoyu Ji, Fengbin Song, Tiantian Bai, Xiaoqing Fan, Dahui Wang
Abstract
Throughout China, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is available alongside western medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate patients’ familiarity with, trust in, and willingness to pay for traditional Chinese medicine services for disease prevention and health care in Chinese community health centres, and to identify strategies for service improvement. A cross-sectional study was conducted, and a random sample of 599 patients were surveyed in community health care centres in five Chinese cities. Chi-square test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and binary logistic analysis were used to identify factors associated with patients’ familiarity with, trust in, and willingness to pay for TCM services for disease prevention and health care. Of the participants, 84.5 % were familiar with TCM prevention and health care services with 62.1 % expressing their trust in these services. This was associated with the number of services provided locally in communities. Patients’ willingness to pay for TCM prevention and health care services was low and depended on patients’ ability to pay. Those having higher monthly incomes were more likely to pay for local services. Most patients were familiar with and trusted TCM prevention and health care services, but they were less willing to pay for them. The health policymakers and the community health centres may need to take more measures to encourage and improve uptake of local services.