Effects of Perceived Risk and Patient Anxiety on Intention to Use Community Healthcare Services in a Big Modern City

Abstract

In Shanghai, one of the biggest modern cities in the world, community-based health care providers are largely underutilized. As a result, valuable medical resources are wasted. The present study examined the relationship between the variables of perceived risk and patient anxiety on intentions to use community health clinics, because these two variables are closely related to decision making. A survey measuring these variables was distributed near community health clinics in Shanghai ( n = 869), and structural equation models were constructed to analyze the data. Results show that patient anxiety was associated with contracting diseases and positively related to the intention to seek services from community-based providers, whereas their perceived risk of these providers had a negative relationship with such an intention. Moreover, the knowledge that some community clinics were not as good as large hospitals was positively related to perceived risk. Policy implications are discussed based on the findings.