Impact of the Internet on Medical Decisions of Chinese Adults: Longitudinal Data Analysis

BACKGROUND: The internet has caused the explosive growth of medical information and has greatly improved the availability of medical knowledge. This makes the internet one of the main ways for residents to obtain medical information and knowledge before seeking medical treatment. However, little has been researched on how the internet affects medical decisions. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between internet behaviors and medical decisions among Chinese adults aged 18 or over, including whether to go to the hospital and which level of medical institution to choose. METHODS: With the adult residents (≥18 years old) in 12 regions including urban and rural areas taken as the research objects, the differences in medical choices of adults with various characteristics were analyzed, and generalized linear mixed models were adopted to analyze the longitudinal data of the China Health Nutrition Survey from 2006 to 2015. RESULTS: Adult groups with different ages, genders, education levels, regions, places of residence, severities of illness and injury, years of suffering from hypertension, and history of chronic diseases showed diverse medical decisions, and the differences were statistically significant (P<.05). After controlling for these potential confounding factors and taking self-care as the reference, the probability of Chinese adults who participated in online browsing activities selecting hospital care was 0.82 (95% CI 0.69-0.98; P=.03) times that of residents who did not participate in online browsing activities. In terms of medical institution choices, adults who participated in online browsing activities were 1.86 (95% CI 1.35-2.58; P<.001) times more likely to opt for municipal medical treatment than primary care. However, the effect of online browsing on the selection probability of county-level hospitals was not significant compared with primary hospitals (P=.59). Robust analysis verified that accessing the internet had a similar effect on Chinese adults’ medical decisions. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese adults who use the internet are a little less likely to go to the hospital than self-care. The internet has broken down the barriers to obtain knowledge of common diseases and thus has a slight substitution effect of self-care on hospital care. Internet use may increase the probability of adults going to municipal hospitals. The rising tendency of visiting high-level medical institutions may be consequently exacerbated due to knowledge monopoly of severe and complicated diseases that is difficult to eliminate, and the increase in inconsistent and incomplete medical information online will blur the residents’ cognitive boundary of common diseases and severe diseases. Exploring the substantive impact of the internet on medical decision making is of great significance for further rational planning and utilization of the internet, in order to guide patients to appropriate medical institution.