The impact of Internet use and involvement on residents’ attitudes to healthcare in China: A propensity score matching analysis

The recent surge in Internet growth has significantly altered how residents obtain health information and services, underscoring the need to investigate its impact on healthcare perceptions. However, current studies often fail to distinguish between Internet use and involvement, as well as the diverse range of healthcare stakeholders, resulting in incomplete and inconsistent understanding. To address this, this study utilized data from the 2018 China Family Panel Study (CFPS 2018), categorizing attitudes toward healthcare into three dimensions: doctor trust, satisfaction with medical institutions, and perception of systemic healthcare issues. Employing propensity score matching (PSM) to control for thirteen confounding variables, this study examined the Internet’s impact on public attitudes toward healthcare among similar demographic, psychological, and health-related variables. Results revealed that both Internet use and involvement affect residents’ attitudes toward healthcare to some extent, with involvement having a more pronounced effect. While Internet use increased the perception of systemic healthcare issues, Internet involvement enhanced doctor trust, yet reduced satisfaction with medical institutions and exaggerated the perception of systemic healthcare issues. These findings have significant theoretical and practical implications. They enhance the comprehension of diverse levels and purposes of Internet use, thereby advancing our knowledge of its multi-faced influence on public attitudes toward healthcare. Furthermore, they offer insights for medical institutions to improve service quality, assist Internet media in optimizing information delivery, and illuminate the implications for residents who effectively use the Internet to assess health information.