Internet Use and its impact on frequency of visit to doctors

The traditional relationship between doctors and patient has experienced structural changes and a new type of relationship emerged. Patients have been transformed into an active consumer of health information and claim their participation in the decision-making process. Internet use has a main impact on the significant change of the structure in the medical world. The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether internet use can affect positively or negatively the frequency of visit to doctors. The factors used in our analysis were internet use for health information, opportunity cost, quality of relationship and health state. The method used in our study was a questionnaire survey which tested the hypothesized relationship between internet use and frequency of visit to doctors. It was indicated that internet use affect negatively the frequency of visit to doctors. Furthermore quality of relationship and health state are significant factors that influence positively the frequency of visit to doctors in contrast with opportunity cost that has no significant impact. A potential relationship between internet use opportunity cost, quality of relationship and health state could be investigated in a greater extend.