Exploring the Factors Influencing Patient Usage Behavior Based on Online Health Communities

摘要

Online health community, as a new medical pattern, provides patients with a platform for searching health-related information and seeking medical help. Considering there is a causality loop between patients' doctor choice behavior and patient review behavior, this study uses a simultaneous equation system to explore the factors influencing patient usage behavior and the reverse causality between patient choice and patient review. The results show that online word-of-mouth of doctors is a principal factor that patients care about when making online booking and consultation. In addition, our findings substantiate that there is a positive peer influence in the health field. This article innovatively extends the online feedback mechanism from e-commerce to online health field, and studies the patient usage behavior as an economic system, which has a high significance for the theoretical study of online health community.