Snipes Robin L, Ingram Rhea, Jiang Pingjun
D. Abbott Turner College of Business, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA 31907, USA.
J Hosp Mark Public Relations. 2005;15(2):33-53. doi: 10.1300/J375v15n02_03.
This paper investigates how individual consumers may differ in their information search behavior in health care decision-making. Results indicate that most consumers still use word-of-mouth as a primary information source for health care decisions. However, usage of the Internet is increasing. The results of this study indicate that consumers who are most likely to use the Internet for health care information are single, younger, and less educated, whereas consumers who are most likely to use word-of-mouth are middle-aged, married, with higher income and higher education. Surprisingly, no significant gender difference was found in information search behavior for health care decision-making. The results also suggest that consumers with the highest tendency to use word-of-mouth are also the lowest users of the Internet in health care decision-making. Implications of these findings are discussed.
本文研究了个体消费者在医疗保健决策中的信息搜索行为可能存在的差异。结果表明，大多数消费者仍将口碑作为医疗保健决策的主要信息来源。然而，互联网的使用正在增加。本研究结果表明，最有可能使用互联网获取医疗保健信息的消费者是单身、年轻且受教育程度较低的人，而最有可能使用口碑的消费者是中年、已婚、收入较高且受教育程度较高的人。令人惊讶的是，在医疗保健决策的信息搜索行为中未发现显著的性别差异。结果还表明，在医疗保健决策中使用口碑倾向最高的消费者也是互联网使用最少的用户。讨论了这些发现的意义。
