2.1.1. Research on the impact of internet medical information spillover on farmers’ healthcare consumption

Academic research on the impact of Internet medical information spillover on farmers’ healthcare consumption mainly centers on the “crowding-in effect” and “crowding-out effect.” From the perspective of crowding-in effect, Arrow introduced the uncertainty of consumption and asymmetry of information into the medical service field as early as 1963, and found that the market of medical service is very likely to have an “induced effect” on patients (16), while farmers have a weak sense of information prevention and serious information asymmetry between doctors and patients, they are highly susceptible to Internet information luring (17, 18). The ability of farmers to find optimal decisions is more dependent on their knowledge structure system and their ability to discriminate information. However, most farmers have a weak foundation in information technology, which makes it difficult to transform the “uncertainty” of Internet medical information into “certainty” (19). Doctors, on the other hand, have more professional knowledge and more say in the medical field, which can improve the certainty of Internet medical information. However, it is likely to exaggerate the patient’s condition due to its own economic interests, creating an “induced effect” on medical behavior, resulting in over-consumption of medical resources by the patient and increasing medical and healthcare consumption (20). From the perspective of the crowding-out effect, Internet information can provide rural residents with more specialized medical and health information, contributing strong information support for the development of rural medical and health care, and to a certain extent, reducing the economic burden of farmers’ medical and health care (21, 22).

Farmers can obtain efficient medical and health services and products through online consultation, online purchase of medicines, and telemedicine, which prompt rural residents with limited economic conditions and scarce medical resources to enjoy the high-quality medical resources of tertiary hospitals. Guiding the sinking of quality medical resources into rural areas and prompting Internet consultations to “replace” or relieve the workload of primary health-care organizations can continuously improving the efficiency of rural medical services, which avoid the poor decision-making behaviors of farmers who give up medical treatment because of a lack of economic resources. Accordingly, the following two research hypotheses are proposed:

H1a: Internet medical information overflow has a “crowding-in effect” on farmers’ medical and healthcare consumption.

H1b: Internet medical information overflow has a “crowding-out effect” on farmers’ medical and healthcare consumption.