Analysis of the characteristics of medical service depending on the latent classification of medical information

의료정보 이용의 잠재적 유형에 따른 의료서비스 특성분석

The primary purpose of this study is to examine consumers'probing actions to see what information sources consumers search for medical information when there are diverse medical service information channels, and classify consumers by information source. Its secondary purpose is to understand trust of information and attitude toward information by consumer type, value of medical service, satisfaction with medical service, and word-of-mouth intention. This study will concretely identify information utilization patterns of medical consumers, and explain the unique characteristics and behavior of segmented types of medical consumers. The significance of this study lies in the search for ways to establish information channels trusted by consumers for building an efficient medical service market in the future. The results of this study show that consumers were classified by the latent class analysis(LCA) into 5 types: low-level information seekers, word-of-mouth information seekers, mass media information seekers, digital information seekers and diverse information seekers. The reliability of information sources by type of medical consumer was statistically significant, and in the analysis of differences in consumer attitude, there was a statistically significant difference in cognitive responses. The value of medical service was statistically significant in health recovery and medical service word-of-mouth intention.