The Effect of Online Health Information Seeking on Physician-Patient Relationships: Systematic Review

Abstract

Background The internet has now become part of human life and is constantly changing people's way of life. With the increasing popularity of online health information (OHI), it has been found that OHI can affect the physician-patient relationship by influencing patient behaviors. Objective This study aims to systematically investigate the impact of OHI-seeking behavior on the physician-patient relationship. Methods Literature retrieval was conducted on 4 databases (Web of Science, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, SinoMed), and the time limit for literature publication was before August 1, 2021. Results We selected 53 target papers (42 [79%] English papers and 11 [21%] Chinese papers) that met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 31 (58%) papers believe that patients’ OHI behavior can enable them to participate in their own medical care, improve patient compliance, and improve the physician-patient relationship. In addition, 14 (26%) papers maintain a neutral attitude, some believing that OHI behavior has no significant effect on doctors and patients and others believing that due to changes in the factors affecting OHI behavior, they will have a negative or a positive impact. Furthermore, 8 (15%) papers believe that OHI search behavior has a negative impact on doctors and patients, while 6 (11%) papers show that OHI reduces Chinese patients’ trust in doctors. Conclusions Our main findings showed that (1) OHI-seeking behavior has an impact on patients' psychology, behavior, and evaluation of doctors; (2) whether patients choose to discuss OHI with doctors has different effects on the physician-patient relationship; and (3) the negative impact of OHI on China’s internet users is worthy of attention. Due to the low quality of OHI, poor health information literacy, short physician-patient communication time, and various types of negative news, patients' trust in doctors has declined, thus affecting the physician-patient relationship. Improvement of people's health information literacy and the quality of OHI are important factors that promote the positive impact of OHI on the physician-patient relationship.

Web-Based Health Information–Seeking Methods and Time Since Provider Engagement: Cross-sectional Study

“…These interpretations are consistent with prior work suggesting that WHI-seeking may influence a person’s medical treatment decisions, including whether to visit a physician or not [ 22 ]. These interpretations are also consistent with prior work suggesting that WHI-seeking influences patients’ trust in health care providers [ 23 - 25 ], which is in turn associated with the frequency at which patients engage with their providers [ 26 , 27 ]. These findings differ, however, from previous work suggesting that WHI-seeking leads to more frequent visits with physicians [ 16 ] and that this effect is larger for those who exhibit lower trust in information offered by health care providers [ 17 ].…”

“…Additional work is needed to identify the role of MMI in the relationship between WHI-seeking and health care provider engagement. Nuances in these relationships—such as differences by specific web-based platforms—may be especially salient given literature suggesting that the availability and use of WHI by patients can be beneficial to patient-provider relationships [ 13 , 14 , 23 ]. For example, several studies assert that WHI-seeking may promote health literacy among patients and improve communication with providers [ 13 , 23 ].…”

“…Nuances in these relationships—such as differences by specific web-based platforms—may be especially salient given literature suggesting that the availability and use of WHI by patients can be beneficial to patient-provider relationships [ 13 , 14 , 23 ]. For example, several studies assert that WHI-seeking may promote health literacy among patients and improve communication with providers [ 13 , 23 ]. Others find that physician-encouraged WHI-seeking by patients may improve patient compliance with treatment recommendations [ 14 ].…”

“…Others find that physician-encouraged WHI-seeking by patients may improve patient compliance with treatment recommendations [ 14 ]. Some works speculate that the impact of WHI-seeking on patient-provider relationships is contingent on several factors, including the quality of WHI retrieved by patients [ 23 , 31 ], the willingness of providers to discuss WHI brought forth by a patient [ 32 ], a provider’s reactions to a patient’s presentation of WHI with respect to their treatment [ 13 , 33 ], and whether the WHI serves to complement or challenge a provider’s medical expertise [ 34 ].…”

Quality of Late-Life Depression Information on the Internet: Website Evaluation Study

“…This finding is important to note, as prior research supports older adults’ preference for involvement in decisions related to their health and treatment options [ 86 ], and caregivers have been identified as an important part of this process [ 36 ]. The inclusion of this information on websites could serve to encourage and improve the shared decision-making processes among older adults, caregivers, and health care providers [ 87 ]. As shown previously, websites that provide evidence-based information, diverse treatment options, and content that supports shared decision-making constitute a high-quality website [ 36 , 37 , 52 ].…”