A Study of Elderly Patients' Preference for "Internet + Nursing Service" Based on Discrete Choice Experiments

Altern Ther Health Med. 2024 Jan 1:AT9825. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the preference of elderly patients for "Internet + Nursing Service", so as to provide reference for accurately matching their service needs.

Methods: Based on discrete choice experiments, the elderly patients' "Internet + Nursing Service" choice preference questionnaire was prepared, and 410 elderly patients were interviewed face-to-face. The Conditional Logit Model was used for quantitative analysis of the experimental data.

Results: The six attributes included in the study had a significant impact on the elderly patients' preference for "Internet + Nursing Service" (P < .05). Among non-economic attributes, "medical insurance reimbursement ratio -70%" has the highest utility (.263, P < .001), with "hospital size - larger (.205, P < .05)" and "medical insurance reimbursement ratio -50%" (.188, P < .05) ranking second and third, respectively. The relative importance of the attribute of medical insurance reimbursement proportion is the highest (26.44%), and the relative importance of service content is the lowest (9.78%). If the proportion of medical insurance reimbursement increases from 30% to 70%, patients are willing to pay 202.9 yuan, and the probability of choosing "Internet + Nursing Service" increases by 6.1%.

Conclusion: Patients prefer to choose a higher proportion of medical insurance reimbursement, a larger medical institution, a higher level of nurses, low single service costs, a basic package, and "Internet + Nursing Service" led by the government and hospitals. Improvement of the price and medical insurance payment policy is recommended, along with the enhancement of the ability of primary nursing services, strengthening of the management of Internet enterprise platforms, and scientific assessment of the needs of patients for personalized nursing services.