Digital health information seeking in an omni-channel environment: A shared decision-making and service-dominant logic perspective

Abstract

The health service ecosystem traditionally has focused on unidirectional information flow from the health provider to consumer. However, this model fails to adequately engage consumers in their health decision-making to improve consumers' wellness. Consumers' health information seeking in today's omni-channel information environment is a critical value co-creation activity that increases consumers' engagement. Yet little is known about how consumers' health information seeking is evolving the information flow pattern and resulting consequences on consumers' health self-awareness. Our study closes this gap by empirically exploring the effects of consumers' health information seeking in an omni-channel environment and its influences on consumers' health self-awareness. We used structural equation modeling to analyze survey results from 310 health consumers collected as part of a healthcare organization's annual door-to-door wellness study. The results demonstrate the importance of helping consumers integrate informational inputs outside the service encounter to increase consumers' engagement and conscious reflection on their well-being.