Medical Tourism for Cosmetic Procedures: Credibility Assessment of Service Providers via Online Health Forums

Makoto Nakayama, Charlie C. Chen, Peter Ractham

Source Title: Handbook of Research on Emerging Perspectives on Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics

ISBN13: 9781522554608|ISBN10: 1522554602|EISBN13: 9781522554615

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-5460-8.ch022

MLA

Nakayama, Makoto, et al. "Medical Tourism for Cosmetic Procedures: Credibility Assessment of Service Providers via Online Health Forums." Handbook of Research on Emerging Perspectives on Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics, edited by Joseph Tan, IGI Global, 2018, pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5460-8.ch022

APA

Nakayama, M., Chen, C. C., & Ractham, P. (2018). Medical Tourism for Cosmetic Procedures: Credibility Assessment of Service Providers via Online Health Forums. In J. Tan (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Emerging Perspectives on Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics (pp. 1-17). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5460-8.ch022

Chicago

Nakayama, Makoto, Charlie C. Chen, and Peter Ractham. "Medical Tourism for Cosmetic Procedures: Credibility Assessment of Service Providers via Online Health Forums." In Handbook of Research on Emerging Perspectives on Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics, edited by Joseph Tan, 1-17. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-5460-8.ch022

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Abstract

Medical tourism, especially cosmetic surgery in South Korea, is popular amongst Thai youths. Like their counterparts around the world, they rely on web resources—in particular, online health discussion forums typically offering many features—to research cosmetic surgery providers. However, these forums are not without challenges. This chapter conducted lab experiments with 207 business school students to assess the impact of these forums along with their 16 features on credibility assessment of service providers. The results show that the reliability of web information is critical in enhancing the credibility of both doctors and hospitals, and social influence is important for doctor credibility but not hospital credibility. In addition, only certain types of forum features impact the credibility assessment of cosmetic surgery providers.