Is physician online information sharing always beneficial to patient education? An attention perspective

Abstract

AimsWith the development of information technology, online health platforms and physician online information sharing play an important role in public health management and patient education. Is physician online information sharing always beneficial to patient education? From the attention perspective, this study aims to explore how physician online information sharing influences patient education, considering the contingent roles of physician online reputation and offline expertise.MethodsA 6-month panel data of 61,566 physician-month observations from an online health platform in China was used to tested the proposed hypotheses. Considering the inefficiency and estimated bias of the ordinary least squares regression model, this study conducted the fixed models to test the direct and moderating effects.ResultsThe results indicate that physician online information sharing is positively related to potential patient education, while the relationship between physician online information sharing and realized patient education is an inverted U-shape. Physician online reputation enhances the positive relationship between physician online information sharing and potential patient education, but physician offline expertise weakens the abovementioned relationship. In addition, physician offline expertise flattens the curvilinear effect of physician online information sharing on realized patient education.ConclusionThis study contributes to the literature about attention theory and information sharing for patient education, and provides implications for practice.

Configuration Path Study of Influencing Factors on Health Information-Sharing Behavior among Users of Online Health Communities: Based on SEM and fsQCA Methods

“…Liu et al [ 20 ] underscored the significant value of online health interactions to third-party patients, emphasizing the importance of prevention information, emotional support, and uncertainty in physicians’ responses to the perceived usefulness of the information. Guo et al [ 21 ] presented a nuanced relationship between physicians’ online information sharing and patient education, where increased sharing augments potential education but induces an inverted U-shaped effect on realized education. These relationships are moderated by the physicians’ online reputation and offline expertise.…”