Patients’ contribution as a quid pro quo for community supports? Evidence from Vietnamese co-location clusters

Abstract

This paper studies the emerging societal phenomenon of voluntarily co-located patients communities, by examining a data set containing 336 responses from four such co-location clusters in Hanoi, Vietnam. The analysis successfully models the data employing the baseline category logits framework. The results obtained from the analysis show that patients co-living in these clusters contribute their resources (financial and in-kind) in hope of community supports during their medical treatments. They also contribute voluntary services and share information/experiences with the community, with different beliefs on expected outcome with respect to their possible benefits provided by their communities. Patients value the business community supports–a reflection on better awareness of corporate social responsibilities–higher, and are more skeptical toward expected benefits from the public health system. The results represent one of first attempts in understanding this special type of somewhat isolated circles of desperate patients who have been excluded from Vietnam’s fast-growing emerging market economy.