Community residents’ preferences for chronic disease management in Primary Care Facilities in China: a stated preference survey

Background Although Chinese government has dedicated the past decades to treating chronic diseases by primary healthcare system, many more residents are apt to choose higher-tier facilities to treat minor chronic diseases. Understanding residents' preferences for chronic disease management in primary care facilities can bridge the gap between residents' choices and policy implementation. This study aims to elicit residents' preferences for chronic disease management in primary care facilities in the hypothetical minor chronic disease scenario. Methods Six hundred eighty residents were administered a discrete choice experiment that elicited preferences for chronic disease management in primary care facilities. Services attributes were service mode, treatment measure, out-of-pocket expenditure (OOP), traveling time to healthcare facility and title of physician. Mixed logit models were used to estimate stated preferences and willingness to pay for attributes. WTP confidence intervals were estimated by the delta method. Results A total of 94.44% of the completed questionnaires were valid (680 of 720 respondents). The participants preferred chronic disease management service with modern medicine, traveling time [less than or equai to] 30mins, and less OOP expenditure. Compared with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), residents prefer modern medicine, willing to pay 155.53 CNY ($21.97) to change from TCM to modern medicine. Compensation about 86.02 CNY ($12.15) was needed to enable residents to change the choice of the nearer primary care facility to a further one. Integrated medicine in community clinics by experts was residents' most preferred scenario while TCM in the tertiary hospital was their least preferred one. Conclusion In order to increase the utilization of primary healthcare services in chronic diseases management, policy makers need to concern more about the services of medical treatment type, price and convenience. Therefore, we advise policy makers to provide nearer primary healthcare services for residents especially for residents in surrounding areas. Furthermore, balancing the resource allocation between Traditional Chinese Medicine and modern medicine is worthy of consideration. Keywords: Chronic diseases, Primary care, Healthcare, China, Discrete choice experiment