There is not sufficient information in the market of medical service. Whether the public has adequate information is the key to the choice of healthcare seeking. Due to the shift of medical environment, rise of consumer¡¦s awareness and respect to patient¡¦s right, the public is concerned about their health and right. Becoming customer-oriented, the industries of medical service start to emphasize the management of customer¡¦s needs and provide appropriate products and service in order to achieve hospital¡¦s sustainable operation and development. This research aims to explore people¡¦s needs of medical seeking from the health news offered by medical institutes and to probe into the influence of health news on choice of medical seeking. Furthermore, the difference of people¡¦s medical seeking behavior of different demographic characteristics and health condition would also be discussed. This research adopts the quantitative survey method of questionnaire to collect data of outpatients in the over 15 age group on a regional hospital in Kaohsiung City. We received 381 valid questionnaires totally and 352 surveys are usable. The valid sample returns-ratio is 92.3%. The results for statistical analysis show that the rank order of demands on issues of news for people¡¦s seeking medical care are listed as follows according to the assisting extent of healthcare provider: ¡§The new trend of health and diseases¡¨, ¡§novel treatments or technique,¡¨ ¡§information of healthcare and hygienic education,¡¨ ¡§introduction of new equipment and facility,¡¨ ¡§medical discovery,¡¨ and ¡§doctor introduction or profession¡¨. The average mean of the required level marks above 4¡§satisfaction¡¨. (The score 5 is the highest.) By excluding other factors, it achieves levels of significance in aspects of health news path and health news issues on explanation of each dimension of people¡¦s medical seeking behavior. Health news shows significant effect on people¡¦s medical seeking behavior. The standardized coefficient is analyzed for further check that health news path and health news issues are positive predictable variables in each dimensions of people¡¦s medical seeking behavior. It implies that for people¡¦s medical seeking behavior, the higher the health news path uses and the higher the demand of health news requires, the stronger the influence on people¡¦s medical seeking behavior. In the discussion of the difference of people¡¦s medical seeking behavior of different demographic characteristics and health condition, it shows that gender, age, level of education, occupation, medical seeking under discomfort, commercial medical insurance, health condition and frequency of medical seeking in recent month would intervene how health news influence people¡¦s medical seeking behavior. By logistic regression analysis, it is found that level of education, coverage on newspapers, hospital handouts, introduction of new equipment and facility and medical discovery are possible predictors of the purpose of medical seeking. On the other hand, easy to choose of healthcare seeking , critical illness, frequency of medical seeking in recent month, coverage on newspapers and medical discovery are possible predictors of the site of medical seeking. In addition, age, level of education, medical seeking under discomfort, health condition, hospital website, community healthcare service and public relationship activity are possible predictors of the frequency of medical seeking. The conclusion of this research could be adopted by the hospital manager and the public relations practitioner for reference as they intend to release health news.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2006.

Universiẗat, Diss.--Köln, 2007.

Regensburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

Zugl.: Freiburg (Breisgau), Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

Zugl.: München, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

München, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2001. / Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.

München, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2001. / Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.

Diss. Univ. Freiburg (Schweiz), 2004.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2007.