Research on transfer of patient trust in online health websites / 中华医院管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the determinants and mechanism of trust transfer among patients for online health websites using the equation model. Methods A trust transfer model was built based on the theory of group convergence and doctor-patient interaction. 225 doctor records of online consultations were collected from Haodf, an online health website by data crawling from May 1 to Nov.30, 2017. Multiple regression was used for an empirical analysis. Results The patients' online trust has a positive impact on the physicians'trust offline, with a regression coefficient of 0.94, being significant at the level 0.01. Patient incentives, group size, and frequency of group interaction are important for online patient trust. Meanwhile, patient motivation, group size, and patient online efforts all have significant effect on patient offline trust. Conclusions Online patients' trust affects their offline trust significantly. Developers of online health websites can increase the online trust of patients by motivation and interaction, which help create a desirable medical environment and encourage their trust to offline doctors, contributing to higher medical satisfaction.