title: Applying the concept of consumer confusion to healthcare: development and validation of a patient confusion model.
abstract: As patient autonomy and consumer sovereignty increase, information provision is considered essential to decrease information asymmetries between healthcare service providers and patients. However, greater availability of third party information sources can have negative side effects. Patients can be confused by the nature, as well as the amount, of quality information when making choices among competing health care providers. Therefore, the present study explores how information may cause patient confusion and affect the behavioral intention to choose a health care provider. Based on a quota sample of German citizens (n = 198), the present study validates a model of patient confusion in the context of hospital choice. The study results reveal that perceived information overload, perceived similarity, and perceived ambiguity of health information impact the affective and cognitive components of patient confusion. Confused patients have a stronger inclination to hastily narrow down their set of possible decision alternatives. Finally, an empirical analysis reveals that the affective and cognitive components of patient confusion mediate perceived information overload, perceived similarity, and perceived ambiguity of information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Business Administration II, Marketing and Health Care Management, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gebele
authors.affiliation: Department of Business Administration II, Marketing and Health Care Management, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Dieter K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Tscheulin
authors.affiliation: Department of Business Administration VI, Public and Non-Profit Management - Corporate Governance and Ethics, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany joerg.lindenmeier@vwl.uni-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lindenmeier
authors.affiliation: Department of Business Administration II, Marketing and Health Care Management, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Drevs
authors.affiliation: Department for Health Policy & Management, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Ann-Kathrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Seemann
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D003221:Confusion / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000592:standards; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D057240:Patient Preference / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: consumer health information; health policy; hospitals; information use; patient information; patient views