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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1376887
This article is part of the Research Topic Mobile Health: A Communication-Centered Approach View all 5 articles

More Knowledge, more choices? How peer recognition of physicians' knowledge sharing affect patients' consultation in online health communities

Provisionally accepted
Zhen Xu Zhen Xu 1Xiaochen Liu Xiaochen Liu 2Lingguang Meng Lingguang Meng 3*Xuanxuan Lyu Xuanxuan Lyu 4*
  • 1 School of communication, East China University of political science and law, Shanghai, China
  • 2 School of Economics and Management, Liaoning University of Technology, Jinzhou, China
  • 3 School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 4 International Relations Department, Beihang University, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: The advent of telemedicine has revolutionized healthcare consultations, primarily due to the digital era and global health concerns. Online healthcare communities (OHCs) have emerged as platforms for physicians to share health-related articles, promoting digital public health awareness and knowledge dissemination. The continuous dissemination of health knowledge by physicians online is considered a crucial driving force in attracting patients to seek online consultations. Methods: Based on the elaboration likelihood model and the information overload theory, this study explores how persuasive messages from other patients' peer recognition, including knowledge popularity and attractiveness, affect patients' consultation decisions. Additionally, the study examines the three-way interaction between knowledge popularity, attractiveness, and quantity in shaping patient consultations. Using data collected from 2676 physicians on haodf.com, this study established an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model with time and city fixed effects to test the hypothesis. Results: The results show that: (1) peer recognition (knowledge popularity and attractiveness) from other patients positively impacts patients’ consultation; (2) knowledge attractiveness positively moderate the relationship between knowledge popularity and patients’ consultation; (3) there is a three-way effect of knowledge popularity, knowledge attractiveness, and knowledge quantity on patients’ consultation. Conclusion: Our findings offer valuable guidance for platform design and healthcare practitioners, boosting patient-physician engagement in online healthcare communities.

    Keywords: Online health communicaties1, Patient consultation2, knowledge sharing3, peer recognition4, telemedicine5

    Received: 29 Jan 2024; Accepted: 10 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Xu, Liu, Meng and Lyu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Lingguang Meng, School of Journalism and Communication, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, Shanghai Municipality, China
    Xuanxuan Lyu, International Relations Department, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.