Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 24, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 29, 2019 - Jun 24, 2019
Date Accepted: Jul 23, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Predictors of patients’ loyalty towards doctors on online health communities
ABSTRACT
Background:
Online health communities not only provide means for patients to seek care, but also to promote their relationship with doctors. However, little is known about the predictors of patient loyalty towards doctors on online health communities.
Objective:
This study aims to investigate what are the predictors of patient loyalty towards doctors in online health communities.
Methods:
Based on social-technical systems theory and attachment theory, we propose that social factors including emotional interaction, perceived expertise and social norm influence patient loyalty through their emotional attachment, while technical factors containing sociability, personalization and perceived security affect patient loyalty through functional dependence. To validate our proposed research model, we employed the survey method and collected 373 valid answers. Partial least square was used to analyze the data.
Results:
Our empirical analysis results show that all the social factors including emotional interaction (b=0.257, t=2.571, p<0.05), perceived expertise (b=0.288, t=3.412, p<0.01) and social norm (b=0.210, t=2.017, p<0.05) affect patients’ emotional attachment towards doctors significantly, while except sociability (b=0.110, t=1.152, p>0.05), technical factors like personalization (b=0.242, t=2.228, p<0.05) and perceived security (b=0.328, t=3.438, p<0.01) impact functional dependence significantly. Considering the effect of working mechanisms, both emotional attachment (b=0.443, t=4.518, p<0.001) and functional dependence (b=0.303, t=2.672, p<0.01) influence patient loyalty towards doctors on online health communities significantly.
Conclusions:
Patient loyalty towards doctors on online health communities is important for the effectiveness of doctors’ advice or service in online health communities. The research results, not only fill the gaps in the literature of the patient-doctor relationship and online health communities, but also provide many implications to establish patient loyalty on online health community and in physical context.
Citation
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Copyright
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