Subjective Experienced Health as a Driver of Health Care Behavior

Abstract

This paper describes the key role of the subjective experience of health as the driver of health related behavior. Individuals vary greatly in terms of behaviors related to health. Insights into these interindividual differences are of great importance for all parties involved in health care, including patients and consumers themselves. Such insights allow for better tuning of health care offerings to patient and consumer needs. Subjective experienced health is identified as the key driver of health care behavior. Consequently, insights into the subjective health experience and its antecedents are essential to describe, explain, predict, and control health-related behaviors. Implications of these insights are discussed for a number of topical issues in health care: services-diversification, therapy non-adherence, patient self-management, and outcome measurement.

Keywords: Subjective experienced health, health related behavior, patient typology, health care services, therapy