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Abstract
A survey of 104 physicians examined the role of physicians' evaluation of the quality of e-health and beliefs about the influence of patients' use of e-health in how physicians discuss e-health materials with patients. Physicians' lower (poor) evaluation of the quality of e-health content predicted more negative mediation (counter-reinforcement of e-health content). Perceived benefits of patients' e-health use predicted more positive (endorsement of e-health content). Physician's perceived concerns (negative influence) regarding patients' e-health use were not a significant predictor for their mediation styles. Results, challenging the utility of restrictive mediation, suggested reconceptualizing it as redirective mediation in a medical interaction. The study suggested that patient-generated e-health-related inquiries invite physician mediation in medical consultations. Findings and implications are discussed in light of the literature of physician–patient interaction, incorporating the theory of parental mediation of media into a medical context.
Notes
1The items measuring physicians' perceived concerns of, and benefits about, patients' uses of e-health were submitted to factor analysis. The results of oblique solution appear in the appendix. The four factors emerged using the maximum likelihoods of extraction. These include two factors relating to physicians' perceived concerns, information content-related (VAF = 14.9%; eigenvalue = 1.94) and consultation-related (VAF = 12.9%; eigenvalue = 1.68) concerns, and other two factors relating to physicians' perceived benefits, knowledge acquisition (VAF = 27.6%; eigenvalue = 3.58) and gaining support (VAF = 8%; eigenvalue = 1.06). Based on the physician–patient interaction literature, the perceived concerns index include the first two subfactors (Cronbach's α = .73), whereas the perceived benefits index consists of the latter two subfactors (Cronbach's α = .71).
