IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v317y2023ics027795362200942x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Small talk is a big deal: A discursive analysis of online off-topic doctor-patient interaction in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Author

Listed:
  • Wei, Shuang
  • Mao, Yansheng

Abstract

This study aims to examine the small talk of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) during online medical consultation (OMC). With the textual and audio doctor-patient conversations collected from Chunyu Doctor, an asynchronous and synchronous e-health platform in mainland China, this study systematically analyzed 432 pieces of TCM consultations. Results indicate that TCM doctors actively initiate small talks in online scenarios to acquire holistic information for diagnosis and boost patients’ face for rapport management, both of which further contribute to patient-centeredness in Chinese OMC. Importantly, TCM doctors attach great importance to small talk, while patients perceive it with insufficient attention. To some extent, this study contributes to existing knowledge of small talk by examining its informative and interpersonal functions under the online circumstance of TCM in Oriental scenarios.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei, Shuang & Mao, Yansheng, 2023. "Small talk is a big deal: A discursive analysis of online off-topic doctor-patient interaction in Traditional Chinese Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:317:y:2023:i:c:s027795362200942x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115632
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362200942X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115632?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernardi, Roberta & Wu, Philip F., 2022. "Online health communities and the patient-doctor relationship: An institutional logics perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Xuekun & Luo, Zhengpeng, 2024. "Communicating male sexual dysfunction: The medicalization and psychologization of sexual experiences in Chinese online medical consultations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:317:y:2023:i:c:s027795362200942x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.