The McKinsey Quarterly: The 6 types of patients

The McKinsey Quarterly: The 6 types of patients: "We explored five themes: the patients' level of involvement and perceived control over their health, their knowledge of hypertension and its treatment, their level of concern about the disease, their beliefs about the safety and efficacy of medications, and the quality of their interactions with physicians. Survey respondents indicated their level of agreement with statements such as, 'I am very active in the management of my health' and 'My high blood pressure is not very serious.' In addition, the survey explored the patients' receptiveness to interventions that might influence their degree of adherence.4

When we analyzed the relationship between the attitudes and self-reported behavior of patients, six segments emerged (Exhibit 1, part 1). They ranged from proactive patients, who scored high on all five themes (Exhibit 1, part 2), to skeptical patients, who, for example, thought their condition was not serious, distrusted both physicians and medications, and adhered to their regimen as infrequently as 5 percent of the time. Likewise, we observed strong links between behavior and attitudes toward medication among the remaining segments: confident, concerned, confused, and resigned."