Background: Recently the new medical demand for chronic disease like obesity & diabetes, daily health improvement and beauty therapy have been increasing rapidly. With meeting this demand of the modern people, the Medical Spa industry in USA is spread...
Background: Recently the new medical demand for chronic disease like obesity & diabetes, daily health improvement and beauty therapy have been increasing rapidly. With meeting this demand of the modern people, the Medical Spa industry in USA is spreading fast all over and also in Korea, the new concept, Medical Skincare has been spreading unusually fast since 'Segregation of dispensing from prescribing' in July, 2000. In this study, we investigated the value of WTP (willingness to pay) which the koreans actually accept as the monetary value for the Medical Skin Care, as well as the literature research about the Medical Spa & Skincare in the aspect of clinical use and study.Subject and Method: This study aimed to elicit willingness to pay (WTP) values of Acne Treatment and Melasma Treatment, the two representative services in the Medical Skin Care, with using a CVM (contigent valuation method). We developed a questionnaire based survey for 500 people who were residing in Seoul city, with the mothod of direct interview by person to person, and we obtained the data for 352 women and 148 men assigned proportionally according to the population rate of 25 districts in Seoul area. In data analysis, we did the frequency analysis about the basic data of all survey respondents, and for the value of WTP, we elicited the mean amount and distribution chart. For comparision according to the character of each respondant, we classified the independant variables into three catagories, the basic social character, the related diesease condition, and KAP mode(Knowledge, Attitude and Practice), then we did the divariate analysis with Chi Square(χ2) and for demonstrating the determinants influencing the monetary value of WTP, we continued for multivariate analysis with Multi Regression. In the result, the most significant variable was found as Practice(Experience), thus for the deepper analysis, we went further to find determinants for the Experience-variable by Binary Logistic Regression.Result[Acne Medical Skin Care WTP Value]The mean amount of Acne MSC WTP was ?26,676(U$30.00), and the demand curve chart shows that 52.84% respondants have the willingnessto pay at the cost between ?20,000 to ?40,000 and 17.3% respondants have WTP between ?40,000 to ?80,000, In the Chi Square analysis, the significant determinants of Acne MSC WTP were Mariage State, School Background, Occupation, Disease condition, Knowledge, Attitude, MSC-Experience and Acne MSC Experience, and in the Multi Regression analysis, only Attitude(Need) and both MSC-Experience & Acne MSC- Experience turned out most significant. The WPT amount in the group with high need was ?3,992 higher than in the group with ordinary need, and was ?4,695 higher than in the group with low need, and the WPT amount in the MSC Experienced group was ?11,169 higher than in the non-Experienced group and in the Acne MSC-Experienced group, it was ?10,779 higher than in the non- Experienced group. In the further analysis about Acne MSC-Experience variable, the Disease Condition turned out most highly associated with Experience in both Chi Square and Logistic Regression analysis.[Melasma Medical Skin Care WTP Value]The mean amount of Melasma MSC WTP was ?34,972(U$38.00) and the demand curve chart shows that 45% respondents have the willingness to pay at the cost between ?30,000 to ?50,000, 18% respondents at the cost between ?50,000 to ?100,000, and 3.7% respondents at the cost between ?100,000 to ?150,000. In the Chi Square analysis the significant determinants of Melasma MSC WTP were Disease condition, Knowledge, Attitude and Experience, and in the Multi Regression analysis, only MSC-Experience and Melasma MSC-Experience variables turned out most significant. The WPT amount in the MSC Experienced group was ?16,695 higher than in the non- Experienced group and in the Melasma MSC-Experienced group, it was ?30,689 higher than in the non- Experienced group. In the further analysis about Acne MSC-Experience variable, the significant determinants were found as Marriage State, Income, Occupation, Knowledge, Attitude(need) and Disease Condition in both Chi Square and Logistic Regression analysis. Among them Disease Condition turned out most highly associated(p<.0001).Conclusion: In this study, the mean amounts of WTP were suggested slightly lower than the current market prices, however as they belonged in the range of the makret prices provided commonly in clinics, they can be evaluated as suggested somewhat practically in the aspect of market state. The demant curve charts indicate 53% respondants for Acne MSC and 45% for Melasma MSC have the willingness to pay at the higher cost range including the market price zone, it means that around half of the general people are willing to accept the practical value of MSC which are being done currently as medical service in clinics. For detailed information, in the Experienced group, 82% respondants for Acne MSC and 90% for Melasma MSC have willingness to pay at the higher cost including the current market price zone. It shows that although they were already once contacted with the price information, even after experience they still have willingness to pay about the current cost, thus it proves that the MSC services deserve the substantial value of the price level currently provided in clinics.