Minority Pharmacy Customers Report Significant Differences In Treatment.

Wilson Health Information released results that show that multicultural pharmacy customers were less likely to receive rescription medications for many conditions and were less satisfied with treatment for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, depression, Ulcer/GERD, osteoporosis and menopausal symptoms.

Treatment incidence for Diabetes was higher among Hispanic households (27%) compared to Caucasians (21%), primarily driven by a thirty-two-percent higher incidence of Type II Diabetes. African American households also reported a high incidence of Diabetes (26%) with higher levels of both Type I and Type II Diabetes. Asian households reported lower levels of treatment
incidence and treatment satisfaction.

Asian, Hispanic and African American pharmacy customers were more likely than Caucasians to use Chain and Clinic pharmacies and less likely to use Independents, Food Store and Mail order pharmacies to fill prescriptions.

Asian pharmacy customers were more likely to have an HMO Health Insurance plan and African-Americans a government provided plan such as Medicaid or Medicare. Multicultural pharmacy customers as a group were considerably less likely to have pharmacy benefit coverage compared to Caucasian households.

“Multicultural markets need to be targeted differently in order to understand and manage customer expectations, particularly with disease treatment and medications,” said Jim Wilson, R.Ph, MBA, President. “For example, Asian customers were less likely to receive and less satisfied with written materials, yet they were more likely to have access to a computer to retrieve health information.” Hispanic customers were most likely to speak to their pharmacist, but were less satisfied with written materials and counseling; African American customers were least likely to be offered the opportunity to speak with their pharmacist, but spoke with their pharmacist the longest. The WilsonRx Multi-Cultural Markets Report also contains detailed information levels of satisfaction with their pharmacy, pharmacy benefit, health insurance and medical treatments.

Mr. Wilson will present key findings from the report at the 4th annual Multicultural Pharmaceutical Marketing conference in Princeton, NJ on March 19th. For information at http://www.srinstitute.com/cm396