Opportunities in consumer-driven health care

Jeff Gregori, group VP consumer and shopper analytics at Nielsen

There is significant opportunity across the front end of retail pharmacy to help consumers better manage chronic disease states, said Jeff Gregori, group VP consumer and shopper analytics for Nielsen, during the Monday morning Insight Session on “Consumer-Driven Healthcare” at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ Total Store Expo.

“When you look at the state of today’s consumer, it’s really about prevention. There’s just such a hyper-focus on health,” Gregori said. “The reason for retailers to get much more focused on health care [is] the consumer demand is there.” Few non-food sectors have driven growth at retail like health care. Since 2011, healthcare products have represented 22.7% of overall non-food growth with $6.3 billion in increased sales.

And while diabetes is significant — consumers with diabetes buy 35% more OTC products than the average consumer — there are other opportunities helping consumers better manage their chronic conditions that haven’t been fully realized at retail.

Take hypertension, for example. It’s a disease state that impacts as many as 70 million Americans, and patients with hypertension index higher among several OTC categories, including smoking cessation and sleep aids. But it’s not yet a disease state around which many retailers have designed destina-

tion planograms.

“It’s a much bigger audience for any disease-state program that you’re going after,” Gregori said. As many as 14% of U.S. households have a diabetes sufferer, Gregori said, compared to 34% with hypertension sufferers. And while hypertension sufferers don’t spend as much in OTC as compared to diabetics, they still spend 17% more on OTCs when compared to the average consumer.

Comorbidities among hypertension sufferers include eye disease, sleeplessness, obesity, acid reflux and joint, neck or back pain.