Burson-Marsteller China and Kantar Health jointly released a piece of research on healthcare and wellness trends in China. The survey was organized through an online questionnaire involving 1,000 consumers across tier 1 and 2 cities in China. Over 50% of the respondents, aged 26 and older, were college graduates, and over 70% were professionals and mid-to-high level executives.

1. China Healthcare & Wellness Consumer Survey
Prepared by Burson∙Marsteller & Kantar Health
June 2011

2. Content
 ExecuDve Summary
 Overview & Methodology
 Key Findings
PrioriDes and expenditure paIerns in health and wellness
InformaDon sources for health and wellness
 ImplicaDons

3. Executive Summary

4. Key Findings
 Healthcare tops family spending priority:
+ Almost 70% of consumers rank healthcare as the most important expenditure for Chinese families today.
 Empowered and proacDve consumers:
+ PrevenDve‐care minded
+ Over 80% of consumers surveyed will conduct research on the Internet for informaDon
every Dme or most of the Dme before they consult a doctor.
 News‐driven informaDon:
+ A key source of healthcare informaDon (69%), second only to doctor s advice (73%).
 Internet and online peer‐to‐peer communicaDon “trusted” (viewed as credible)
pla]orms for healthcare informaDon:
+ 96% will turn to the Internet for informaDon on sensiDve health topics
 Women love themselves and men love their wives.

5. Overview & Methodology

6. Overview & Methodology
 In February 2011, Burson‐Marsteller and Kantar Health surveyed 1,000 consumers across
Tier I and Tier II ciDes in China to gain new insights into current healthcare and wellness
trends, with a focus on expenditure paIerns and informaDon sources.
Online survey
Methodology • 1000 consumers
• 3 Tier I ciDes & 11 Tier II ciDes
Healthcare & Wellness
Topics • Expenditure paIerns
• InformaDon sources
Gain new insights into current Healthcare & Wellness trends

7. Sample DistribuDon
Tier I Ci;es Tier II
Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou ci;es[1]
Male 83 63 57 418
Gender
Female 22 37 45 294
Income Level Middle income 50 50 50 352
[2]
High income 55 50 52 360
Age 25 ‐ 35 27 18 23 554
Age Age 36 – 45 33 38 62 112
Age 46+ 45 44 17 46
TOTAL N = 1019 105 100 102 712
[1] Tier I ciDes include: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Tier II ciDes include: Shenzhen, Nanjing, Tianjin, Shenyang, Jinan, Xi’an, Wuhan, Chengdu,
Zhengzhou, Hangzhou and Changsha.
[2] Mid‐income means: the family income is 6,000 – 9,999 RMB per month.
High‐income means: the family income is 10,000 + RMB per month.
 Over 50% of the respondents are college graduates.
 Over 70% are professionals and mid-to-high level executives.

8. Priorities and expenditure patterns
in healthcare and wellness

9. Healthcare is the third largest family expenditure in China
Currently, consumers are spending a significant amount of their household
expenditure on healthcare. Nearly 50% of consumers indicate that healthcare
is the third largest expenditure area for their families.
63%
49%
45%
Children s
Food Healthcare
EducaDon

10. And the most important area for most consumers
Almost 70% of consumers consider healthcare as one of the most important
expenditure areas for Chinese families today, exceeding food and children’s
educaDon.
55%
Children’s
66%
Food educaDon
67%
Healthcare

11. Healthcare expenditure = beIer quality of life
72% respondents agree that they are spending money on healthcare and
wellness so as to aIain a beIer quality of life for themselves and their family.
TOTAL
72%
Beijing
70%
Shanghai
69%
Guangzhou
75%
Tier II ciDes
72%

12. Consumers are spending money on criDcal healthcare needs
A large majority of consumers focus healthcare expenditure on criDcal and
common illnesses.
Strong willingness to spend on health maintenance and prevenDve care.
Key
Common critical
dical
Illness s
Me esses
illnesses
ccination s
illn
preventio
n
Va check up
67%
70%
77%
80%
88%

13. High‐income families more willing to spend on healthcare prevenDon
Consumers’ willingness to spend on medical check ups
High‐income consumers are
more willing to spend on medical
check‐ups, vaccinaDons and
illness prevenDon.
Consumers’ willingness to spend on vaccinaDons Consumers’ willingness to spend on illness prevenDon

14. Females are making most decisions on health and wellness
expenditure maIers
Most females are making key health
and wellness expenditure decisions
for their families.
And their decision‐making power
becomes more evident as they get
Key decision maker for health and wellness
expenditure in families older.
Female age 26‐35 Female age 36‐45 Female age 46+

15. Women are keen to increase their expenditure levels on healthcare and
wellness in the near future
spend
Female
…
more on
y
# Beautment
Females are spending more money
enhance s &
# Well
nes on beauty enhancement, wellness
on
Nutriti aditiona
l
and nutriDon, and Chinese
# Ch inese tr
e
medicin tradiDonal medicine.
Healthcare/wellness expenditure now
When it comes to wellness, females
are spending money on themselves.
Men are also more likely to spend
money on their wives than
themselves.

16. Healthcare and wellness
information sources

17. News websites: a key category of informaDon source
InformaDon sources on healthcare/wellness maIers
The top 3 key informaDon sources
on healthcare and wellness related
maIers are doctors, news
websites and family/friends.
* CTM = Chinese tradiDonal medicine

18. ProacDve health consumers
Research before making expenditure decisions
Almost all consumers will conduct some
research before making key healthcare/
wellness expenditure decisions.
About 1/3 of consumers surveyed will
conduct extensive research.
Comparison by city/Der level
Comparison by income level

19. Internet: most consumers will conduct research online before they
consult a doctor
Online research before turning to doctors
Although doctors’ advice is
the most reliable informaDon
source for most consumers,
over 80% of consumers
surveyed will conduct
Comparison by city/Der level research on the Internet for
informaDon every Dme or
most of the Dme before they
consult a doctor.
Comparison by income level
n= 1019 105 100 102 712 622 245 152

20. Women rely more on word‐of‐mouth and first‐hand informaDon
Sources for credible healthcare/wellness informaDon
Compared with males, females rely
more on word‐of‐mouth and
informaDon direct from doctors,
family, friends and specialists.
Men prefer to turn to websites for
healthcare and wellness
informaDon, especially news
websites.

21. InformaDon consumpDon paIerns differ between men and women
Sources for credible healthcare/wellness informaDon
Women are relaDonship driven;
they rely more on word‐of‐mouth
and informaDon direct from
doctors, family, friends and
specialists.
Men prefer to turn to websites for
healthcare and wellness
informaDon, especially news
websites.

22. But both males and females are acDve online
Current digital channels consumers are parDcipaDng in
Males and females both show high
parDcipaDon levels in social media
channels such as blogs, BBS, social
networking sites, video sharing sites
and micro‐blogs.
Other top websites Almost half of the men surveyed are
turning to general news websites for
health and wellness informaDon.

23. BBS forums considered most influenDal
Most influenDal digital channels
BBS forums
Social networking
sites About 60% consumers surveyed are
Blogs parDcipaDng in BBS forums, social
Video sharing
sites networking sites and blogs.
1 Micro-blogs
2 3 4 5 6 Other websites
And they feel these are also the
ParDcipaDon levels across digital channels most influenDal and credible digital
channels.
* BBS forums = BulleDn board system are online forms used
to exchange public messages or files, mostly dedicated to a
special interest
N = 1019

24. A look into recent BBS conversaDons….
• Recent BBS conversaDons on Tianya and
Netease forums have centered on remedies
and quesDons around:
o Herbal medicine
o Skin whitening
o Sexually transmiIed diseases
o AnD‐ageing
o Nasal and throat infecDons
• The hot topic of discussion in BBS forums on
Sina.com is death from overwork, triggered
by the recent death of a 25‐year old
employee at PWC who kept a micro‐blog
about her faDgue and workload
o Intense debate over whether overwork threatens
the health of white‐collar workers
o Other white‐collar topics include anD‐ageing,
mental health, backache and weight loss
N = 1019

25. The most popular BBS forum is Tianya
1
Tianya, which is visited most
frequently by 36% of 2
respondents, is clearly the most 3
popular BBS forum for health and
4
wellness informaDon.
5
ParDcipaDon levels at other BBS
6
forums are all below 10% and
generally low. 7
8
9
n = 553
ParDcipate rate of different BBS forums

26. The top web portal most consumers visit is Sina
Sina.com.cn is visited most
1
frequently by 36% of
2
respondents, and is the top web
3 portal for health and wellness
4 informaDon.
5
39.net, a specialized health
6 website, ranked only 7th most
7 popular (3%) , awer general
portal sites Netease, Sohu,
8
Taobao and Baidu.
9
n = 140
ParDcipate rate of different websites

27. Internet for sensiDve health and wellness topics
rce for
Info. Sou pics
to
sensitive
96% of consumers will turn to the
96% Internet and social networking sites
of s
umer
cons rn to
will t
u for sensiDve health and wellness
the
net
6o8s% ers
n um
Inter of c
urn t
will t s
o topics.
r
docto
Key aIributes for healthcare/wellness informaDon
InformaDon or data source for sensiDve topics Consumers are turning to the
Internet as an informaDon source
on sensiDve health and wellness
topics more than they do to doctors
for advice.
N = 1019

28. But credible informaDon on sensiDve health or wellness topics is scarce
SensiDve healthcare/wellness topics
Consumers are uncomfortable sharing
1 or discussing topics such as sexually
transmiIed diseases, AIDS, inferDlity
and aborDon. ComparaDvely, most
consumers are more comfortable
speaking about mental health,
contracepDon and cosmeDc surgery
SensiDve healthcare/wellness topics with limited info. openly.
However, for topics like mental health,
cosmeDc surgery and inferDlity,
consumers are finding it difficult to get
access to credible informaDon and data.
N = 1019

29. Implications

30. ImplicaDons
 Personal health empowerment: consumers want to own health
knowledge and decision‐making power
+ Shiw from paDent educaDon to supporDng health learning
 Re‐examine the doctor knows best communicaDons
structure
+ Doctors are part of the informaDon gathering channels.
+ From a consumers brand experience perspecDve, doctors are part of the brand
experience.
 Community as a criDcal backdrop to messaging structure
+ News: social relevancy and common conversaDon thread
+ Digital: peer‐to‐peer; safety to belong and gather informaDon
+ Lifestyle: quality of life; relaDonal (friends and family); life stages

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32. China Healthcare & Wellness Consumer Survey
Efen Huang Simon Li
Senior Healthcare Strategist General Manager
Burson‐Marsteller China Kantar Health
efen.huang@bm.com Simon.li@kantarhealth.com