DOI: 10.20518/tjph.1930076 ISSN: 1304-1088

Digital health use, online medical information seeking and physician trust in primary care: A national cross-sectional study from Türkiye

Gülçin Gökçenur Karataş
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Objective: The widespread adoption of digital health technologies and increasing online access to health information are transforming the patient-physician relationship and trust in physicians in primary care. This study aimed to examine the associations of digital health use, online medical information seeking, and alternative medicine use with physician trust, and to investigate how chronic disease status shapes this relationship at the national level.Methods: Cross-sectional data from the 2024 Türkiye General Social Survey (TGSS 2024) were used. The physician-trust item was administered only to respondents who had used primary care services in the preceding 12 months, yielding a trust-eligible analytic subsample of n=1,712 within the full survey sample of n=2,615. The dependent variable was physician trust (1-5 Likert scale), with digital health use, online medical information seeking frequency, and alternative medicine use as primary independent variables. Three logistic regression models were constructed; Spearman correlation analysis and chronic disease subgroup analyses were performed. Reporting followed the STROBE guidelines for cross-sectional studies. Results: Among the trust-eligible subsample (n=1,712), 65.9% reported high physician trust (mean trust score 3.69±0.91). A negative correlation was found between online medical information seeking and physician trust (ρ=-0.10; p<0.01). Logistic regression indicated that urban residence [Model 1: odds ratio (OR)=0.79; 95% CI: 0.65-0.98; p=0.030] and higher educational attainment (Model 3: OR=0.75; 95% CI: 0.59-0.96; p=0.021) were associated with lower odds of high trust, while increasing age was associated with higher odds (Model 3: OR=1.01; 95% CI: 1.00-1.03; p=0.020). Among those with chronic disease, the negative association between online seeking and physician trust was more pronounced (ρ=-0.15; p=0.011), whereas this relationship was non-significant among those without chronic disease (ρ=-0.08; p=0.065).Conclusion: Higher education and urban residence are associated with lower physician trust, and online information seeking is inversely associated with trust among individuals with chronic disease. Because the design is cross-sectional, these associations should not be read as causal effects. These findings underscore the need to strengthen patient communication strategies and digital literacy programmes in primary care.

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