Investigating patients' adoption of online medical advice

Health advice from doctors on the Internet may help patients make preliminary medical decisions. Patients may not adopt doctors' advice because of the problems with how the advice is structured rather than the advice quality. We apply the framework of the integrated model of advice giving (IMA) to investigate the link between advice structure and patients' advice adoption. The IMA suggests that, when advice follows the specific sequence of emotional support, followed by problem analysis, and then by suggested actions, the advice-receivers are more likely to evaluate advice as high quality. Uncertainties exist regarding whether the IMA is applicable in the context of online medical platforms. To address this issue, we empirically examine the impact of advice components and sequence of the components on patients' advice adoption on an online medical platform. We collected 416,817 patient advice-seeking and physician advice-giving records from a leading online medical platform in China. We find that advice components of emotional support and problem analysis have important impacts on patients' advice adoption. Furthermore, when advice follows the sequence of problem analysis followed by suggested actions and then by emotional support, patients are more likely to adopt the advice. Our research expands the research context of the IMA to include online medical platforms. This highlights the importance of structuring the sequence of advice components based on the specific context.