Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Oct 4, 2025
Date Accepted: Dec 28, 2025
The Relationship between Physician Self-Disclosure and Patient Acquisition in Digital Health Markets: Cross-Sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Online health communities create digital marketplaces where physicians have to compete for patients, yet little research examines physicians’ strategic profile presentation to influence patient decisions through self-disclosure.
Objective:
This study investigates how the self-disclosure breadth (scope of information) and depth (detailed expertise) embedded in physician profiles influence patient decision-making, and whether digital healthcare level moderates these relationships.
Methods:
We analysed data from 1,798 physician profiles on China’s Haodf online health platform, examining physician self-disclosure strategies and patient consultation outcomes across varying digital healthcare environments.
Results:
Self-disclosure breadth positively influences patient visits, as does self-disclosure depth. Digital healthcare level positively moderates both relationships, indicating strategic profile disclosure becomes more effective in technologically advanced regions.
Conclusions:
This study reconceptualizes physicians as strategic agents rather than passive profile holders. By extending self-disclosure theory to healthcare contexts and identifying digital healthcare level as a boundary condition, we provide actionable strategies for physicians, design insights for platforms, and policy guidance for enhancing regional digital healthcare capabilities.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.