JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Internet healthcare plays a crucial role in addressing the challenge of distributing high-quality medical resources and promoting the optimal allocation of these resources and health equity in China. Online medical consultation plays a more significant role than online health information seeking. Currently, the proportion of Chinese patients using Online medical consultation is low. Therefore, it is essential to enhance patient engagement with OMC and fully leverage the role of Internet healthcare in optimizing the allocation of medical resources.

Objective:

Exploring the correlation mechanisms of online medical community users' switching behaviors from online health information seeking to online medical consultation.

Methods:

This study is based on the KAP theory, which combines the social support theory and the health belief model to construct a research model of users' willingness to transition from online health information seeking to online medical consultation. The study adopts a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling method to conduct an empirical study.

Results:

Gaining knowledge about information support has a significant positive impact on perceived susceptibility (β=0.339, p<0.001), perceived severity (β=0.33948, p<0.001), and perceived benefits (β=0.361, p<0.001), while having a significant negative impact on perceived barriers (β=-0.285, p<0.001). Gaining knowledge about emotional support positively affects perceived susceptibility (β=0.220, p<0.001) and perceived benefits (β=0.149, p<0.01), but does not significantly influence perceived severity (β=-0.006, p>0.05) or perceived barriers (β=0.099, p>0.05). Perceived susceptibility (β=0.17123, p<0.015), perceived severity (β=0.174, p<0.001), and perceived benefits (β=0.273, p<0.0) positively influence patients' transition to online consultation behavior, whereas perceived barriers (β=-0.112, p<0.05) negatively impact this switch. Additionally, we found that gaining knowledge about information support not only directly affects patients' behavior in switching to online consultations but also impacts patients' online medical consultations through perceived susceptibility (14.23%), perceived severity (13.17%), and perceived benefits (25.28%). In contrast, gaining knowledge about emotional support does not directly influence patient behavior transfer; it only operates through perceived susceptibility (46.95%) and perceived benefit (52.90%).

Conclusions:

This study integrated the knowledge-attitude-behavior framework, social support theory, and health belief model to uncover the internal logic of patients' behavioral transfers within online health communities. It confirmed the mediating role of the cognitive-emotional dual-drive pathway and health beliefs. The findings provide a scientific basis for the functional design of online healthcare platforms and for precise health knowledge dissemination strategies. Clinical Trial: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xinxiang Medical University (212102310499).