Audience Segmentation to Promote Lifestyle for Cancer Prevention in the Korean Community

Objectives: This study was designed to segment the audience group of ‘10 lifestyle for cancer prevention’ basedon demographic characteristics and the level of knowledge about each guideline for cancer prevention among thecommunity in South Korea.
Methods: Participants were chosen through stratified random sampling accordingto the age and gender distribution of Gangwon province in South Korea. A telephone survey was conductedfrom 6 to 15 calls among 2,025 persons on October 2008. A total of 1,687 persons completed the survey (responserate: 83.3%). Survey items were composed of socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, income,education, and residence area and the knowledge level of ‘10 guidelines for cancer prevention’, developed by‘Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare’ and covering smoking cessation, appropriate drinking, condom use,and regular physical activity and so on. We selected the priority needed to promote awareness and segmentedthe audience group based on the demographic characteristics, homogeneous with respect to the knowledge levelusing Answer Tree 3.0 with CHAID as a data mining algorithm.
Results: The results of analysis showed thateach guideline of ‘ 10 lifestyle for cancer prevention’ had its own segmented subgroup characterized by eachdemographic. Especially, residence area, - city or county, and ages were the first split on the perceived level ofknowledge and these findings suggested that segmentation of audiences for targeting is needed to deliver moreeffective education of patients and community people. In developing the strategy for effective education, themethod of social marketing using the decision tree analysis could be a useful and appropriate tool.
Conclusion:The study findings demonstrate the potential value of using more sophisticated strategies of designing andproviding health information based on audience segmentation.