OBJECTIVES: Consumers are more involved with their healthcare than in pre-internet, pre-DTC days. This leads to consumer segments with different healthcare attitudes and outcomes. Members of these groups, however, do not report outcomes in isolation; they are filtered through their personality and position. This study illustrates the diversity of healthcare consumers and discusses how outcomes research can benefit by leveraging this variation. METHODS: An annual, self-reported study of U.S. consumer attitudes and behaviors was fielded in May 2001 and included 22,376 adult respondents. The sample was stratified and weighted by key demographics. We conducted a cluster analysis on 17 healthcare opinions, designed to evaluate health-related compliance and proactivity. RESULTS: Healthcare consumers segmented into five clusters: Rockwellians (26%) visit and trust doctors. They feel in control of and satisfied with their healthcare. Independent Thinkers (22%) ruminate before they medicate and have self-reliant attitudes. Polly Pharmas (21%) are healthcare information sponges. What, Me Worries (19%), conversely, are indifferent to their healthcare. Angry Young Men (12%) feel worse than they are, but do not act. Clusters differed by age, gender, and education. These segments also had different outcomes. For example, consistent with their negative attitudes, Angry Young Men had the lowest mental health, while content Rockwellians had the highest. Polly Pharmas reported worse physical health and were most likely to visit GPs (73%), while only half of What, Me Worries (53%) did. Independent Thinkers were taking fewer Rxs, though reporting an average number of conditions. CONCLUSIONS: There is great variety among healthcare consumers, correlating with diverse outcomes. This illustrates the caveat for self-reported data, that consumers' subjective reports should be interpreted contextually accounting for the type of healthcare consumer. We need to know who the "self" was that reported. Understanding - and measuring - this complexity should be considered with adherence, resource use, and other outcomes measures.