Developing a Profile of Consumer Intention to Seek Out Additional Information Beyond a Doctor: The Role of Communicative and Motivation Variables

Current reports in the medical literature demonstrate increasing acknowledgment of consumer involvement in autonomous health and medical information search beyond the doctor. Although multiple studies have segmented consumers into different groups based on the different levels of patient autonomy, the literature review revealed the lack of systematic attempts at elucidating the antecedents of autonomous consumer health information search. In this article, I examine the role of health consciousness as a mediator of the relation between communicative (interpersonal, community, print, television, and Internet) factors and health information seeking.