How Does Media Use Promote the Purchase of Private Medical Insurance? A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Various information media (such as TV and the Internet) have become the main channels through which for people to obtain information. Previous studies showed that media use influences the purchase of private medical insurance; however, research on its internal influence mechanism is still relatively weak. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey 2017, this study constructed a moderated mediation model to analyze the mechanism of the influence of media use on the purchase of private medical insurance. Individuals’ self-rated health status was used as a mediator and individual cognitive ability was used as a moderator. The results showed that self-rated health status played a partial mediating role and individual cognitive ability played a negative moderating role in the direct path between media use and the purchase of private medical insurance. Furthermore, in the indirect path, individual cognitive ability negatively moderated the impact of media use on self-rated health status.