Factors influencing the purchasing behavior of TCM outpatients in Taiwan

To test the factors that influence Chinese medicine outpatients' behavior patterns in purchasing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) under the National Health Insurance (NHI) system in Taiwan.

A structural questionnaire was developed and administered to randomly selected outpatients waiting for Chinese Medicine at pharmacies in two academic hospitals that offered Chinese Medicine services in central Taiwan. A total of 641 effective questionnaires were collected. SPSS 10.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) was used to run descriptive analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). In addition, LISREL 8.30 (Analytical Package, Scientific Software International, Inc., Chicago, IL) was used to modify and analyze the relationship between the variables of the hypothetical pathway model.

Path analysis showed that "behavioral intention" and "suffering from disease" had positive and direct influences on the outpatients' patterns of purchasing TCM. Furthermore, "usable resources" was an important factor with direct influence on behavioral intention. When there were more usable resources, the behavioral intention became stronger and indirectly influenced the purchasing behavior of TCM outpatients. In addition, one-way ANOVA showed that the purchasing behavior was significantly influenced by the number of diseases that an individual suffered. The results of the pathway model showed that "behavioral intention" and "suffering from disease" had positive and direct influence on the TCM purchasing behavior of Chinese Medicine outpatients. However, "usable resources" was an important factor with direct influence on behavioral intention. When there were more usable resources, the behavioral intention became stronger and indirectly had influence on the TCM purchasing behavior. Furthermore, the analysis result of one-way ANOVA showed that the more chronic diseases the surveyed subject suffered, the more significant the influence on purchasing behavior became.

Under the current NHI system, patients with multiple chronic diseases are the major purchasers of TCM products not covered by NHI. Therefore, increasing the usable resources of TCM products for the patients with chronic diseases will help hospitals in developing TCM services under the current NHI system.