An Investigation Into Patient Privacy Disclosure in Online Medical Platforms

Abstract

Patients using online medical community platforms are a special group of social media users, unique in terms of their willingness and behavior in disclosing private information. However, patients' willingness for information disclosure is crucial for efficient operation of the platforms. From the perspective of these platforms, this paper investigates the impact of fairness (outcome fairness and procedural fairness) on the patients' willingness to disclose privacy in the platform, and the role of perceived platform interactivity in this effect. Survey analysis of 1,546 online medical platform users shows that outcome fairness and procedural fairness have a direct positive impact on both the patient's perceived platform interactivity and their willingness for privacy disclosure, while the perceived interactivity is found to enhance the willingness for privacy disclosure. These findings provide theoretical and practical guidance for online medical community platforms in encouraging patients to disclose information.

Keywords

• Fairness
• online medical community
• privacy disclosure
• perceived interactivity
• patient privacy