Balancing online pharmacy services for patient adherence: a stimulus-organism-response perspective
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 30 June 2021
Issue publication date: 12 November 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify patient experience unique to online pharmacy services (OPS) based on the characteristics of OPS (i.e. interactivity and virtuality) and to reveal how patient experience is derived from OPS and thereby enhances patient adherence from both online social support and patient experience perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The Stimulus-Organism-Response framework was used to conceptualize this study; both primary and secondary data for 296 validated participants were collected on a real OPS platform. A structural equation modeling approach combined with partial least squares was employed for the quantitative analysis.
Findings
Social presence and user engagement can be identified as patient experience in the OPS context; online emotional support has a stronger association with patients' social presence than it does with patients' user engagement; patients' social presence has a stronger association with their medication adherence than it does with diet adherence, while patients' user engagement has a stronger association with their diet adherence than it does with medication adherence; patients' medication knowledge negatively moderates the relationship between user engagement and diet adherence.
Originality/value
This study identifies patient experience in accordance with unique characteristics of OPS, and it reveals the nuanced underlying mechanisms by which online social support is associated with patient experience and by which patients' experience is associated with their adherence. This study enriches the literature on patient adherence, patient experience and OPS, providing insights for healthcare providers, OPS designers and policymakers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers are 71622002, 71531007, 71471048, 71871074, 71871073, 71571068) and the Key Projects of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research of Chinese Ministry of Education (grant number is 19JZD021).
Citation
Yang, H., Peng, Z., Guo, X. and Lai, K.-H. (2021), "Balancing online pharmacy services for patient adherence: a stimulus-organism-response perspective", Internet Research, Vol. 31 No. 6, pp. 2000-2032. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-10-2020-0603
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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