Abstract

While online healthcare services (OHS) have expanded rapidly, the effectiveness of healthcare delivery remains underexplored, especially regarding how the quality of patient communication influences consultation outcomes. Drawing on the knowledge adoption model (KAM) and signalling theory, this study investigates how patient inquiry quality (PIQ) affects treatment effectiveness in asynchronous online health interactions (AOHI), and how this relationship is moderated by healthcare delivery models (one-to-one vs. one-to-many). Using approximately 5, consultation records from a Chinese online healthcare platform (217-223), we expand the application boundaries of KAM and ST by (1) shifting focus from physician-side factors to patient-initiated inquiry quality and (2) demonstrating how delivery models moderate the relationship between inquiry quality and treatment effectiveness. We also develop a theoretical framework encompassing process and outcome measures to assess treatment effectiveness in AOHI contexts. Practically, this research provides insights for platform design and evaluation to enhance online healthcare communication effectiveness.

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