Explore User Engagement In The Doctor-Patient WeChat Group From The Perspective Of Affordance

In 2019,the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic put the national healthcare system in a highly saturated and overloaded operating state.The trend of population aging has become increasingly apparent,and citizens’ demand for health services is growing.During the period of 2019-2022,the COVID-19 outbreak occurred successively in various regions,leading to the postponement of non-emergency treatments and hospital appointments for some patients.In this situation,"Internet + healthcare" has become an important communication tool with significant potential for providing medical information and services anytime and anywhere.With the comprehensive development of information technology,WeChat has become a widely used communication tool,and "WeChat groups" that connect people with each other through WeChat are permeating and influencing people’s lives,becoming an indispensable communication platform for each group.As the most common representative product of mobile healthcare technology,the doctor-patient WeChat group has built a platform for communication between healthcare service providers and service recipients.Despite the many benefits provided by doctor-patient WeChat groups to both healthcare providers and patients,there are still some challenges in their practical application.Firstly,most patients only remain short-term observers in doctor-patient WeChat groups,and their interest and sustained usage often decline over time,hindering the effective utilization of such groups.Secondly,based on the technical characteristics of WeChat groups,it is still unclear which specific features of doctor-patient WeChat groups can promote user engagement.Therefore,this study aims to investigate user cognitive and emotional engagement in the unique context of doctor-patient WeChat groups,based on the theory of technology affordance.By explaining the antecedents of user engagement in doctor-patient WeChat groups,this study explores the impact of user engagement on their psychological well-being.This study focused on patients in WeChat groups for cancer patients in several tertiary hospitals in Sichuan province,China.Two rounds of questionnaires were conducted using Wenjuanxing,and a total of 138 valid questionnaires were obtained after matching patient information from both rounds.Upon completion of the formal data collection,this study employed SPSS 24.0 and Smart PLS 4.0 to conduct Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)analysis on the collected data and to verify the hypotheses of the model.The results of the hypothesis testing were obtained.The results showed that:(1)doctor-patient WeChat groups have information and social affordance;(2)the two technology affordance of doctor-patient WeChat groups have a significant positive impact on users’ cognitive and emotional engagement,and cognitive engagement has a significant positive impact on users’ partial psychological capital,while emotional engagement has a significant positive impact on all four types of users’ psychological capital;(3)The mediating effect of cognitive engagement between the two technology affordance and psychological capital is not significant;(4)The mediating effect of emotional engagement between social affordance and psychological capital is significant,as well as between information affordance and some aspects of psychological capital(hope and optimism).This study has certain theoretical significance.Firstly,from the perspective of technology affordance,this research enriches the relevant research on mobile healthcare technology and advances the development of affordance theory by investigating the affordance of doctor-patient WeChat groups.Secondly,this study focuses on user engagement and explores in depth the relationship between the affordance of doctor-patient WeChat groups and user engagement from an affordance perspective,as well as the impact of user engagement on patients’ psychological health,which enhances the research on user engagement in the field of information systems management.This study offers practical implications for patient populations,healthcare industry administrators,and enterprises developing mobile health technologies.Firstly,for patients,exploring user engagement in doctor-patient WeChat groups at the individual level helps patients to more clearly recognize the positive impact of mobile health technologies on their health status,thereby enhancing patient engagement.Secondly,for healthcare industry administrators,this research contributes to their understanding of how mobile health technologies such as doctor-patient WeChat groups can improve communication efficiency between doctors and patients,reduce information asymmetry,and inspire administrators to focus on patient engagement in treatment processes,optimize service experiences,and emphasize patients’ mental health in order to improve treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction.Lastly,for enterprises developing mobile health technologies,this study aids in their attention to the information affordance and social affordance of mobile health technologies,and understanding the value generation pathways of mobile health technologies for users,which in turn benefits the development of mobile health technologies that better meet user needs.