Patients' Self-Disclosure Positively Influences the Establishment of Patients' Trust in Physicians: An Empirical Study of Computer-Mediated Communication in an Online Health Community

Abstract

With the development of telemedicine and e-health, usage of online health communities has grown, with such communities now representing convenient sources of information for patients who have geographical and temporal constraints regarding visiting physical health-care institutions. Many previous studies have examined patient–provider communication and health-care service delivery in online health communities; however, there is a dearth of research exploring the relationship between patients' level of self-disclosure and the establishment of patients' trust in physicians. Consequently, this study aims to explore how patients' self-disclosure affects the establishment of patients' trust in physicians. “Good Doctor,” which is a China-based online health community, was used as a data source, and a computer program was developed to download data for patient–physician communication on this community. Then, data for communications between 1,537 physicians and 63,141 patients were obtained. Ultimately, an empirical model was built to test our hypotheses. The results showed that patients' self-disclosure positively influences their establishment of trust in physicians. Further, physicians' provision of social support to patients showed a complete mediating effect on the relationship between patients' self-disclosure and patients' establishment of trust in physicians. Finally, evidence of “hope-for-help” motivation in patients' messages weakened the effect of patients' self-disclosure when physicians' social support was text-based, but strengthened it when physicians' social support was voice-based.