In recent years, it has become a hot topic for the elderly to be deceived when buying health care products. It is reported that in 20 17, the number of formal complaints from the elderly about the consumption of food and equipment claiming to have health care functions has increased significantly. On the one hand, there are many reports and reminders from the media and the Consumer Protection Committee, and on the other hand, there are constantly deceived old people. What are the deep-seated reasons?

Today, the Municipal Consumer Protection Committee released a survey report on the consumption of health care products for the elderly, pointing out that children do not understand the real needs and health status of the elderly, advertisements for health care products are pervasive, and businesses adopt new business models to avoid supervision. The report believes that the elderly do have consumer demand for health care products, and families and society should help them identify them. At the same time, it is necessary to meet the emotional and social needs of the elderly and prevent them from trusting illegal businesses because of "loneliness".

Old people really need health care products.

The report is jointly composed of the Municipal Consumer Protection Committee, the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Shanghai DiBoda Data Institute, and conducts qualitative and quantitative research on the rights and interests of elderly consumers over 60 years old. According to the report, nearly three quarters of the elderly face health problems, and 68. 1% of the elderly have bought health care products within one year, indicating that the demand for health care products exists among the elderly. Unfortunately, 54.5% of the children think that their parents are healthy, and only 50.8% of the children have bought health care products or health care devices for their parents. In addition, 49.0% of children said that they have a very cordial relationship with their parents, but only 17.8% of the elderly think so. Therefore, not knowing the real health status of the elderly and ignoring their emotional needs have become two major mistakes that children are prone to make.

The actual consumption of the elderly also exceeds the estimation of their children. 13.8% of the elderly spend more than 1 10,000 yuan a year on health care products. Correspondingly, only 9.8% of children said that their parents spent more than 1 10,000 yuan on health care products. It is reported that 25.3% of the elderly hide health care products for fear that their children will know.

The sales points and advertisements of health care products can be described as "ubiquitous and pervasive". 89.9% of the elderly said that there were sales outlets near their homes, mainly around the food market (36.6%) and in front of the community (23.3%). E-mail advertising became the largest advertising source, accounting for 7 1.8%, followed by physical store experience (4 1.5%).

Set a "legal cooling-off period" for the elderly to buy health care products

The survey report pointed out that the elderly are divided into irrational consumption groups and rational consumption groups. With the increase of age, the tendency of irrational consumption becomes more and more obvious, from 28.7%(6 1-65 years old) to 95.2% (over 80 years old).

"Irrational consumer groups can be divided into six categories, including sense of responsibility (fear of causing trouble to children), ignorance (lack of relevant knowledge), credulity (having certain knowledge but trusting experts or being overconfident), lack of social activities (lack of hobbies), giving (children don't care much), being greedy and cheap and following the crowd (lack of opinions and being easily influenced). For these six groups of people, we give suggestions respectively, such as not denying your needs for children, not participating in activities organized by non-neighborhood committees, not trusting small advertisements, and not leaving home addresses and telephone numbers for businesses. " Liu Bo, director of the Shanghai New Consumption Research Center under the Consumer Protection Committee, said.

The report suggests that the penetrating mechanism of protecting the rights and interests of elderly consumers should be activated by drawing lessons from the "penetrating supervision mechanism" of protecting the rights and interests of financial consumers. In addition, establish a "legal cooling-off period" system for the elderly to buy health food/health equipment. For example, elderly people over 60 can enjoy the right to return health care products for no reason within a certain period of time. For those who sell expired, three-no or stolen batches of special foods to the elderly, it is suggested that they should be investigated for their responsibilities in accordance with the criminal law while returning compensation.

Establish more community centers to meet social needs.

"The Consumer Protection Committee has been studying marketing traps for many years. A nutritional supplement of $0.50 in foreign markets is sold to the elderly in China, and the price is as high as that in 600 yuan. To make an inappropriate analogy, the risk of selling health care products is smaller than drug trafficking, but it is almost equal to drug trafficking. " Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary-general of the Municipal Consumer Protection Committee, believes that it is more difficult to choose health care products because they cannot measure their efficacy. In foreign countries, similar products are called "nutritional supplements" or "special foods" with neutral names. However, the word "health preservation" is regarded as a compliment in China, which accords with China's traditional health preservation theory of "homology of medicine and food" and is easily recognized by the elderly.

In addition, the health care industry has adopted a new model to evade supervision. For example, experience stores only maintain feelings and do not sell products. When buying a product, you must take it to the salesroom, resulting in "the seller didn't cheat you, and the person who cheated you didn't sell it." For another example, most sales outlets have independent business qualifications, and they try their best to clear the relationship with health care products companies. According to statistics, the marketing expenses of each customer in the health care industry reach 500- 1000 yuan, and the publicity and reminding expenses of the Consumer Protection Committee for this group are only converted into 0.2 yuan.

Tao, secretary-general of the Municipal Consumer Protection Committee, said that the elderly population in Shanghai accounted for 3 1.6% of the registered population in the city last year, far exceeding the national average. Some "rich and leisure" elderly people have consumption needs, but their social circle is small and their knowledge is relatively lacking, so they are easily induced to buy high-quality and low-priced products by activities such as free travel, lectures and free clinics: "We find that elderly people who often participate in social activities, the construction of community neighborhood centers and group activities, as well as those with sound spouses and good relations with their children, are less likely to be deceived. The Consumer Protection Committee calls for and is willing to build a platform to expand publicity in the whole society, popularize consumer knowledge for the elderly, and enhance the ability to safeguard rights. "