Abstract
Years of clinical trials have proven the maturity and safety of certain treatments, however, some of these mature treatments may not be highly effective. Several treatments have emerged through technological innovations, but their long-term safety, efficacy, and adverse effects remain unknown. At present, many patients seek information related to their treatments on the Internet, which may impact their attitudes towards different treatments and their trust in physicians. In this study, a research model was developed to examine how patients’ trust in their physicians is influenced by related online information on mature or emerging treatments. The hypotheses were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). A total of 336 valid responses were collected through an online survey. Mature treatments related health information was found to significantly improve patients’ trust. Thus, physicians should pay more attention to mature treatments, and encourage their patients to seek related information online. Moreover, the quality of online information should be developed further to increase patients’ satisfaction. Physicians should also consider their patients’ psychological safety in communication with patients to strengthen their trust.
Highlights
Treatments can be divided into two categories according to the development conditions: (1) mature treatments, which have been proven safe through years of clinical trials, and (2) emerging treatments, which have emerged in recent years; some emerging treatments are found to be more effective than mature ones, and some are for diseases whose corresponding treatments have not yet been found [1,2,3].Patients’ demands for health information increase as their health literacy improves [4]
The discriminant and convergent validities of the constructs was tested via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
The results indicated that age, gender, and education level did not have any significant effect on the constructs, whereas living area had a significant effect on mature and emerging treatments related Internet health information seeking
Summary
Treatments can be divided into two categories according to the development conditions: (1) mature treatments, which have been proven safe through years of clinical trials, and (2) emerging treatments, which have emerged in recent years; some emerging treatments are found to be more effective than mature ones, and some are for diseases whose corresponding treatments have not yet been found [1,2,3].Patients’ demands for health information increase as their health literacy improves [4]. The Internet increases the likelihood of patients seeking treatment-related information online, which may influence their attitudes towards mature or emerging treatments and affect their relationships with their physicians [5]. People are likely to seek health information on the Internet before or after visiting physicians [6,7]. They can obtain additional information and knowledge regarding healthcare and their illnesses in addition to those provided by their physicians [8]. A previous survey found that patients who are dissatisfied with and who distrust their physicians are more likely to seek health information online [5], and physicians are concerned that health information obtained
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