The effect of consumer behavior in health services and health-related internet use on patient empowerment: The intermediate role of e-health literacy

The fact that patients, who are a component of the health care system, become participants rather than passive in the provision of health services, is one of the effective factors in the effectiveness of the treatment and in reducing health expenditures.Patient empowerment; it can happen when individuals who leave all their authority to the physician, who are passive and who are unaware of their rights, get out of this patient role and take the role of consumers, and become individuals who have control over their health and can decide together with the service provider by choosing them. In this study, the effect of consumer behaviors and health-related internet use on the level of patient empowerment and whether there is a mediating effect of consumers' e-health literacy levels in this relationship were examined. In addition, it was also investigated whether the patient empowerment levels of consumers differ according to their demographic characteristics and their health evaluation status. Structural equation modeling and One Way MANOVA analysis were used to test the hypotheses. As a result of the research conducted with the participation of 297 consumers; It has been determined that participatory consumer behavior has a positive effect on patient empowerment, while timid consumer behavior has a negative effect during health service procurement. It has been determined that health-related internet use has a negative effect on patient empowerment, and e-health literacy has a positive effect on patient empowerment. In addition, as a result of the mediation analysis; It has been concluded that e-health literacy has a mediating effect on the effect of health-related internet use on the level of patient empowerment. While the direct effect of health-related internet use on patient empowerment was negative, this effect was positive through e-health literacy. On the other hand, it has been determined that e-health literacy has a mediating effect on the effect of participatory and timid consumer behaviors exhibited by consumers during the purchase of health services on the level of patient empowerment. As a result of One-Way MANOVA analysis; it has been determined that the patient empowerment levels of consumers do not differ according to gender and settlement, but differ according to age, education status, economic status and their health evaluation status. As a result, the factors that positively affect the patient empowerment level are that the consumer is a participant, being aware of the disease and taking responsibility, e-health literacy, economic status being at a medium level and above, and having a high education level; on the other hand, it has been determined that the factors affecting negatively are the shy behavior of the consumer and the search for information about health from the internet without e-health literacy.