Title: Impression management in doctor-patient communication: experience in Taiwan

Authors: Yi-Chih Lee; Wei-Li Wu

Addresses: Department of International Business, Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan City, Taiwan ' Department of International Business, Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan City, Taiwan

Abstract: In a physical healthcare environment, a doctor's time for each patient is limited. The rise of internet technology has brought new opportunities. Using information gathered from a survey, this study attempted to use the communication platform of medical blogs to explore how impression management, health trust, and online social support affect the impacts of health communication. The partial least squares method was used to analyse these different constructs. According to the empirical results of this study, when doctors use impression strategies to respond to visitor questions on blogs, patients feel that they can understand health information better, and at the same time, patients' usage intention for doctor blogs will increase. In addition, when people receive more social support online, the communication effects of blog use are elevated. This study also demonstrated that health trust can influence medical blog usage intention and health communication.

Keywords: impression management; online social support; health trust; health communication; blog usage intention; doctor-patient communication; Taiwan; medical blogs; healthcare technology; partial least squares; PLS; health information; doctor blogs; e-healthcare; electronic healthcare.

DOI: 10.1504/IJECRM.2015.071710

International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management, 2015 Vol.9 No.2/3, pp.87 - 103

Received: 07 Apr 2015
Accepted: 15 Jun 2015
Published online: 15 Sep 2015 *

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