Thanks for trusting me, parent: Chinese pediatricians' epistemic behaviour for trustworthiness in online medical consultations.

The article investigates how Chinese pediatricians employ epistemic behaviour—discursive practices managing knowledge claims—in online medical consultations (OMCs) to establish trustworthiness with parents. Analyzing 300 highly rated pediatrician–parent text-based consultations from a major Chinese digital health platform, the study identifies three key epistemic behaviours: strengthening epistemic primacy (emphasizing biomedical expertise), mitigating epistemic certainty (using hedges and subjectivisers to express uncertainty), and expressing concern for parents' epistemic domain (acknowledging parents' experiential knowledge). These behaviours correspond to the three dimensions of trustworthiness—ability, integrity, and benevolence—highlighting how pediatricians strategically use language to build trust in virtual healthcare settings. The findings contribute to understanding trust-building communication in online pediatric care and offer practical insights for enhancing doctor–patient relationships in e-health contexts.