Impact of Communicating With Doctors Via Social Media on Consumers’ E-Health Literacy and Healthy Behaviors in China

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between consumers’ communication with doctors and their e-Health literacy and healthy behaviors based on the theory of reasoned action. Five communication activities were identified: following doctors’ social media accounts, reading doctors’ posts, responding to doctors’ posts, favoring (clicking “like” of) doctors’ posts, and recommending doctors to other patients. E-Health literacy and healthy behaviors were measured based on instruments used in previous literature. Survey method was used to collect data and a hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between communication activities and consumers’ e-Health literacy and healthy behaviors. We found that following doctors’ accounts (r = 0.127, P