Association between health communication on integrated healthcare and primary healthcare visits among rehabilitation outpatients: A multicenter cross-sectional study in China

Objective: This study examines the relationship between health communication on integrated healthcare and primary healthcare visits among rehabilitation outpatients in China. Methods: A multi-stage sampling scheme was used to select the rehabilitation outpatients as study participants. A total of 3415 participants from 21 medical institutions in seven cities in China were included in the final analysis. The measurement included primary healthcare visits, health communication on integrated healthcare, and basic characteristics (age, sex, educational level, marital status, household income, and diagnoses). The association between health communication on integrated healthcare and primary healthcare visits was modeled using logistic regression controlling the general characteristics and disease status. Results: Among 3415 rehabilitation outpatients, the mean age of participants was 45.3 years (SD:24.9), and more than half (54.0 %) were male. The majority (56.3 %) were diagnosed with orthopaedic disorders. Received information of integrated healthcare from organizational communication (OR = 2.00; 95 % CI = 1.56, 2.56) and interpersonal communication (OR = 6.03; 95 % CI = 2.49, 14.62), patients who had a higher level of knowledge on integrated healthcare (OR = 1.02; 95% CI = 1.00, 1.03), the interaction terms of ‘organizational communication ∗ knowledge’(OR = 0.98; 95 % CI = 0.97, 1.00), and ‘interpersonal communication ∗ knowledge’(OR = 0.92; 95 % CI = 0.87, 0.97) were associated with visiting primary healthcare initially when had an illness the last two weeks. Conclusion: This study indicated that rehabilitation outpatients display a low level of primary healthcare visits, calling for interpersonal-based health communication interventions to be implemented to improve their integrated healthcare knowledge and promote better primary healthcare visits practices in China.