Factors Influencing the Purchase Decisions of Older Consumers for Healthcare Products in Hanoi: A Proposed Research Model

Vietnam entered the ageing phase of its demographic transition in 2011, and by 2025 people aged 60 and over accounted for 14.5 percent of the national population. Hanoi, with a resident population of more than 8.8 million, hosts one of the largest urban groups of older people in the country, and these consumers have become a visible and fast-growing segment of the market for dietary supplements, functional foods, home health-monitoring devices and other healthcare products. Despite the commercial scale of this segment, the Vietnamese marketing literature still treats older consumers either as an undifferentiated extension of the adult market or as passive recipients of care. This conceptual paper proposes a research model that explains the purchase decisions of older consumers for healthcare products in Hanoi. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Health Belief Model and the consumer-behavior literature on later-life decision making, the model identifies four antecedents of attitude (health consciousness, perceived product quality and benefits, perceived risk and brand trust) and three direct determinants of the purchase decision (attitude, reference-group influence and purchase accessibility), with perceived price and value entering as a further direct predictor. Attitude is positioned as a mediator, and self-rated health status, living arrangement and income are proposed as moderators that capture the heterogeneity of the older population. The paper formulates ten testable hypotheses, specifies the measurement scales adapted for older respondents, and outlines a survey design using interviewer-assisted questionnaires and partial least squares structural equation modeling. The proposed model offers a basis for empirical work in Vietnam and for comparative studies across ageing societies in Southeast Asia.