Adheris Health, Behavioral Insights Group Launches Next Phase Of Ethnographic Study To Help Healthcare Companies Effectively Engage With American Families

BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Adheris Health, an inVentiv Health Company and the nation's largest provider of medication adherence programs, announced today the start of the next phase of a groundbreaking ethnographic study into how Americans make healthcare decisions and the role of American culture in influencing health behaviors.

The insights derived from the research are designed to help life science companies more successfully develop products and services to influence American patients toward better health.  

Ethnographic research takes a holistic, in-person and qualitative approach to the study of human behavior and interactions in natural settings. It provides information and insights that cannot be gleaned from surveys, data analysis or self-reporting and is a tactical tool in today's highly competitive business environment.   

The first phase of fieldwork, led by Adheris Health, Behavioral Insights Group, included 30 families in Boston, Portland, Shreveport and Kansas City.   Families were selected to represent a wide range of ages, socioeconomic levels, experiences and health backgrounds.  The sample included retirees, families with small children and others with adult children, single-parent families, and those caring for elderly family members.  Fieldwork included in-home interviews and direct observation. In addition, participants in the study collected and submitted video diaries documenting their interactions with the healthcare system, their everyday decision-making and behaviors between in-person visits with field researchers.  Nearly 600 hours of video data was collected over a year. 

"This kind of ethnographic research is indispensable for companies hoping to facilitate positive behavior change, such as adherence to medication or lifestyle changes," said Kathleen Starr, Ph.D., a behavioral psychologist and Adheris Health's Senior Vice President of Behavioral Insights and Strategies. 

Among the people in the study were those with allergies and asthma, arthritis, back pain, diabetes, infertility allergies, heart disease, high blood pressure, mental illness, osteoporosis and pediatric cancer – diseases and medical conditions influenced by behaviors.

"Our American cultural context explains a lot about the 'negative' health behaviors that are so widespread," Starr said. "What we found should cause healthcare companies, such as hospitals, health plans and pharmaceutical companies, to rethink how they are marketing to Americans. If we want to facilitate behavior change, we need to understand the day-to-day reality of modern life and how people manage their health – not what they say, but what they actually do."

The initial research produced a broad range of insights useful to healthcare marketers.  One such insight from the observational research concerned the way Americans organize their families. Children are at the center, significantly influencing health behaviors of the entire family. Decisions are made based on the children's activities, schedules and desires, such as what and when they want to eat.  And such decisions are all about making the children happy, with ramifications on the health of the entire family.

"In many cases, kids hold the power," Starr observed.  "If they want to eat fast food for dinner, for example, then the whole family eats fast food.  And health decisions for individuals are made not by the individual, but by the family unit."  

Starr noted that social scientists see the role of the child as a significant shift in American culture over the past few decades.  Understanding the impact of this shift on health allows marketers to work more effectively within a culture they cannot change.

Healthcare companies wishing to encourage positive health behavior change should be thinking about the entire family unit and understand the focus on keeping the kids happy.  A company providing medication and dietary support to a person with diabetes, for example, may be most successful working with dieticians to devise recipes that are not just better for diabetics, but also attractive to kids.

The research showed that American families, particularly those with children, are unstructured, on-the-fly, rushed and driven by the desires of the youngest family members.  Daily health decisions often are dictated by events impacting the family system as a whole.  Families with a finite amount of time and emotional resources must overcome obstacles daily and health gets put on the back burner.  This means marketers must strip down messages and objectives to those that are the most essential because today's families have no time or energy for more.

The research also produced insights and recommendations into how to leverage family systems, why the perception of American individuality matters to health, why focusing on improving resilience is better than just trying to drive adherence and when to focus on the change process rather than the end goal.

The first phase of research, finalized earlier this year, resumes this month following 25 of the original 30 families.  The next phase of work – continuing to study people where and when the health actions occur – will examine discrepancies between objective health status as measured by their lab results and how people perceive their own health.  The study will examine the patient experience from a systems level, learning how social, familial and bureaucratic influences – including the Affordable Care Act -- shape health practices.

Results from the first phase of research are being shared with inVentiv Health clients, through publications and in public forum. 

"A patient's life is not a disease journey; it's a messy, unpredictable series of achievements and setbacks every day.  Disruptions can both undermine positive behavior or generate it.  We set out to understand these disruptions, identify patterns and find ways to support and influence people to do the right thing – and that's exactly what we've done," Starr said.

"This isn't about some mythical empowered consumer; it is about forced, Do-It-Yourself healthcare and the need for healthcare marketers to recognize the reality of individual American lives."

Adheris Health, Behavioral Insights Group, formerly known as inVentiv Health's Patient Marketing Group, brings together experts from various disciplines, including health psychologists, behavioral scientists, clinical specialists, consumer marketers, design experts and user experience specialists, to develop and implement scientifically designed interventions and support programs. These programs are intended to improve health outcomes, enhance therapy adherence, increase patient satisfaction and loyalty, and drive product preference and gains in market share.

To learn more about the study or schedule a consulting session, contact Heidi Youngkin at [email protected], 215-944-3866.

About inVentiv Health
inVentiv Health, Inc. is a life science knowledge and services company purpose-built for the new healthcare marketplace. inVentiv has created a new model by converging a vast range of essential services to fully align with our clients' development and commercialization goals. With more than 12,000 employees supporting clients in 70 countries, our global scale and broad expertise make us an attractive strategic partner for companies seeking to get medicines to patients in a complex operating, regulatory and reimbursement environment.  inVentiv Health's clients include more than 550 life sciences companies, including all 20 of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in the world. inVentiv Health, Inc. is privately owned by inVentiv Group Holdings, Inc., an organization sponsored by affiliates of Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., Liberty Lane Partners and members of the inVentiv management team. inVentiv Health transforms promising ideas into commercial reality for the financial success of our clients and the delivery of better treatments to patients worldwide. For more information, visit www.inVentivHealth.com.

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Contact:
Danielle DeForge
Director, Corporate Communications
inVentiv Health, Inc
+1 781 425 4624
[email protected] 

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