Objective Considering an increasing number of patients bring online health knowledge, as a key form of digital health, to discuss with their doctors, this study aims to construct a model to examine the relationship among perceived improved coping ability (PICA, reflecting patients’ self-efficacy) and physician-patient concordance (PPC), negative and positive doctor-patient trust, as well as doctor-patient relationship (DPR) in the context of diverse online information sources. Methods This cross-sectional survey was conducted online. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling among netizens across China. Through a convenience sampling method, an online survey was conducted among netizens in China. A total of 286 and 1041 valid questionnaires were distributed from May 6, 2022, to May 8, 2022 and February 27 to March 6, 2025, respectively. SPSS 26.0 was used for data analysis, while Smart PLS 4.0 was employed for both model building and testing. Results Compared with individuals utilizing content-sharing and short video platforms, all hypotheses were only supported in individuals utilizing social interaction platforms. PICA was positively correlated with PPC (β = .330; P < .001) and positive doctor-patient trust (PDPT) (β=.204; P = .030). Additionally, PPC was correlated with doctor-patient trust. PDPT significantly enhanced the DPR (β = .497, P < .001), while NDPT significantly undermined it (β = -.373, P < .001). PPC played a partial mediating role between PICA and doctor-patient trust. Doctor-patient trust played a mediating role between PICA and DPR. PPC and doctor-patient trust have a serial mediation effect between PICA and DPR. Conclusion All proposed hypotheses were confirmed only among individuals who primarily used social interaction platforms (such as WeChat, QQ, and Weibo) for health knowledge. The strict review mechanisms of these social media platforms may be crucial in ensuring the quality of health information.
Lu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.