Article
Consumer Perceptions and Behavioral Intentions Toward Health and Wellness Products: A Psychological and Economic Perspective
The global health and wellness market has expanded rapidly in response to increasing consumer awareness of disease prevention, healthy lifestyles, and personalized healthcare, yet the mechanisms underlying consumer decision-making remain multifaceted and insufficiently integrated across disciplines. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from health psychology, consumer behavior, and behavioral economics to examine the psychological and economic determinants influencing consumer perceptions and behavioral intentions toward health and wellness products. The review identifies health consciousness, perceived efficacy, perceived risk, trust, self-efficacy, and social influence as the principal psychological drivers shaping consumer attitudes and purchase intentions, while economic factors including price sensitivity, perceived value, income, affordability, accessibility, and demand elasticity determine purchasing feasibility and market responsiveness. The synthesis further highlights the growing influence of digital health platforms, personalized wellness solutions, premiumization, sustainability, and ethical consumption in reshaping contemporary consumer behavior. By integrating psychological motivations with economic constraints into a unified conceptual framework, this review provides a comprehensive explanation of how cognitive, emotional, social, and financial factors collectively influence wellness-related purchasing decisions. The findings indicate that consumer responses are highly context-dependent and moderated by product credibility, regulatory transparency, information quality, and affordability. This review advances the theoretical understanding of wellness consumption by bridging psychological and economic perspectives, identifies key research gaps for future investigation, and offers evidence-based implications for researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and industry stakeholders seeking to promote effective, accessible, and consumer-centered health and wellness products.