Kang & Lee Advertising, the Asian American multicultural marketing consulting and communications agency in New York City, announces the first national Chinese American Consumer Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Study. The study, fielded by Simmons Market Research, was developed to match the content of the Health & Medicine section of Simmons' semi-annual National Consumer Survey (NCS) which is fielded in both the General and Hispanic Markets.
"To celebrate our 20th anniversary year in 2005, we decided to make an unprecedented investment in Asian American consumer research to address the conspicuous gaps in knowledge within the Health and Pharmaceutical arenas -- categories where marketers are only now starting to seriously scrutinize the Asian American consumer opportunity," said Saul Gitlin, Kang & Lee's EVP-Strategic Services, who led the planning for the study.
The new Kang & Lee study provides a wide range of data about Chinese American consumers including usage (by both category and brand) of over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals including vitamins and mineral supplements, analgesics (both adult and pediatric), cold remedies, heartburn and indigestion aids, laxatives, cough syrups, pain relieving rubs and liquids, bandages and topical antibiotic remedies, products aiding vision, and others. In addition, the study provides critical benchmarks for the incidence and current treatment patterns for an exhaustive list of medical ailments and diseases, including usage of specific prescription pharmaceutical brands within the last 12-months. The study also queried a wide range of consumer attitudinal measures with respect to healthcare and treatments, ranging from the propensity of consumers to get regular checkups, to preference for Chinese vs. non-Chinese medical treatments and doctors, to key sources used by Chinese to obtain health and pharmaceutical information.
On the prescription side, the study found that like other groups, Chinese are willing to ask their doctors for advice and recommendations, and actually under-index for key barriers to use such as the impact of potential side-effects. In terms of health treatment behavior, the study also busts some conventional myths. For example, despite the ancient history of traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese Americans actually dramatically under-index both general and Hispanic consumers for use of alternative treatments. Similarly, while these consumers are relatively recent immigrants -- many of whom experience varying degrees of linguistic and other social barriers in this country -- the study details that Chinese still over-index general market and Hispanic consumers for treatment by many types of medical specialists.
The Kang & Lee Chinese study was fielded in the Spring of 2005 with a random sample of Chinese American adults from the top Chinese DMAs in the country (including New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles). Respondents were pre-recruited by telephone and then mailed a detailed questionnaire in their 'language of comfort' -- Chinese or English. Based on the pre-recruiting, a total of 1,802 questionnaires were mailed, and 778 completed surveys were returned -- resulting in an unusually strong response rate of 43.2%. 86% of respondents opted to reply to the questionnaire in Chinese.