The Decision Making of Thai Consumers towards Pharmacies Using

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to survey the patterns that Thai people use for their health care and medical care 2) to study consumers’ attitude and behaviour of their service used at pharmacies and 3) to propose factors affecting the decision to use service of pharmacies among Thai consumers. The research methodology comprised two steps: conducting a focus group with pharmacy owners and pharmacists to construct a tool for structured interview and collecting questionnaire from 1,255 pharmacies customers countrywide.

         The research found that Thai people do exercises on regular basis and pay much attention to the number of their sleeping hours per day. On the contrary, they don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables and normally don’t take much vitamins and supplements. Three-fourths of Thai people revealed that they used the service of pharmacies at least once a year, particularly when they experienced small symptoms such as headache, coughing, sore throat, flu, diarrhoea, and muscle pain. On the other hand, those who suffered from medical problems (72 percent) chose to seek medical treatment and advice from hospital instead. The choosing criteria for their preferred pharmacies were                1) Travelling conveniences 2) Knowledgeable and experienced pharmacists 3) Reasonable product prices and 4) Quality of products (drugs).

         Moreover, Thai consumers expressed several demands regarding pharmacy services. They want the service of pharmacies to be 24 hours a day with the present of doctors. Basic medical check-up is expected to be free of charge and the right to use social insurance from social security is expected to be possible. In sum, six factors affecting the decision to use service of pharmacies are 1) Pharmacy Location 2) Pharmacists and their Services 3) Store Physical Image 4) Pharmacy Product Quality 5) Pharmacy Products Price and 6) Value added service provided at Pharmacy.