College of International Finance and Trade, Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang, China.
Research Institute for Modern Economics and Management, Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang, China.
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Sep 16;22(9):e20910. doi: 10.2196/20910.
Patients attempt to make appropriate decisions based on their own knowledge when choosing a doctor. In this process, the first question usually faced is that of how to obtain useful and relevant information. This study investigated the types of information sources that are used widely by patients in choosing a doctor and identified ways in which the preferred sources differ in various situations.
This study aims to address the following questions: (1) What is the proportion in which each of the various information sources is used? (2) How does the information source preferred by patients in choosing a doctor change when there is a difference in the difficulty of medical decision making, in the level of the hospital, or in a rural versus urban situation? (3) How do information sources used by patients differ when they choose doctors with different specialties?
This study overcomes a major limitation in the use of the survey technique by employing data from the Good Doctor website, which is now China's leading online health care community, data which are objective and can be obtained relatively easily and frequently. Multinomial logistic regression models were applied to examine whether the proportion of use of these information sources changes in different situations. We then used visual analysis to explore the question of which type of information source patients prefer to use when they seek medical assistance from doctors with different specialties.
The 3 main information sources were online reviews (OR), family and friend recommendations (FR), and doctor recommendations (DR), with proportions of use of 32.93% (559,345/1,698,666), 23.68% (402,322/1,698,666), and 17.48% (296,912/1,698,666), respectively. Difficulty in medical decision making, the hospital level, and rural-urban differences were significantly associated with patients' preferred information sources for choosing doctors. Further, the sources of information that patients prefer to use were found to vary when they looked for doctors with different medical specialties.
Patients are less likely to use online reviews when medical decisions are more difficult or when the provider is not a tertiary hospital, the former situation leading to a greater use of online reviews and the latter to a greater use of family and friend recommendations. In addition, patients in large cities are more likely to use information from online reviews than family and friend recommendations. Among different medical specialties, for those in which personal privacy is a concern, online reviews are the most common source. For those related to children, patients are more likely to refer to family and friend recommendations, and for those related to surgery, they value doctor recommendations more highly. Our results can not only contribute to aiding government efforts to further promote the dissemination of health care information but may also help health care industry managers develop better marketing strategies.
患者在选择医生时，会根据自己的知识尝试做出适当的决策。在这个过程中，他们通常首先要面对的问题是如何获得有用且相关的信息。本研究旨在调查患者在选择医生时广泛使用的信息来源类型，并确定在不同情况下首选信息来源的差异。
本研究旨在回答以下问题：（1）各种信息来源的使用比例是多少？（2）在医疗决策难度、医院级别或城乡情况不同的情况下，患者选择医生时首选的信息来源会如何变化？（3）患者在选择不同专业的医生时，使用的信息来源有何不同？
本研究通过使用中国领先的在线医疗社区“好大夫”网站的数据，克服了调查技术的一个主要局限性，该数据客观、相对容易且频繁获得。我们应用多项逻辑回归模型来检验这些信息来源的使用比例是否在不同情况下发生变化。然后，我们使用直观分析来探讨患者在向不同专业的医生寻求医疗帮助时，更喜欢使用哪种类型的信息来源。
3 种主要的信息来源是在线评论（OR）、亲友推荐（FR）和医生推荐（DR），使用率分别为 32.93%（559,345/1,698,666）、23.68%（402,322/1,698,666）和 17.48%（296,912/1,698,666）。医疗决策的难度、医院级别和城乡差异与患者选择医生时首选的信息来源显著相关。此外，当患者寻找不同医疗专业的医生时，他们偏好的信息来源也有所不同。
当医疗决策较为困难或提供者不是三甲医院时，患者较少使用在线评论，前者导致更多地使用在线评论，后者导致更多地使用亲友推荐。此外，大城市的患者比小城市的患者更倾向于使用在线评论而非亲友推荐。在不同的医学专业中，对于那些关注个人隐私的专业，在线评论是最常见的来源。对于与儿童相关的专业，患者更倾向于参考亲友推荐，对于与手术相关的专业，他们更看重医生推荐。我们的研究结果不仅有助于辅助政府进一步推动医疗保健信息的传播，还有助于医疗保健行业管理者制定更好的营销策略。
