Exploring the Factors Influencing Patient Usage Behavior Based on Online Health Communities

Although online health communities (OHCs) are increasingly popular in public health promotion, few studies have explored the factors influencing patient e-health literacy in OHCs. This paper aims to address the above gap. Based on social cognitive theory, we identified one behavioral factor (i.e., health knowledge seeking) and one social environmental factor (i.e., social interaction ties) and proposed that both health knowledge seeking and social interaction ties directly influence patient e-health literacy; in addition, social interaction ties positively moderate the effect of health knowledge seeking on patient e-health literacy. We collected 333 valid data points and verified our three hypotheses. The empirical results provide two crucial findings. First, both health knowledge seeking and social interaction ties positively influence patient e-health literacy in OHCs. Second, social interaction ties positively moderate the effect of health knowledge seeking on patient e-health literacy. These findings firstly contribute to public health literature by exploring the mechanism of how different factors influence patient e-health literacy in OHCs and further contribute to e-health literacy literature by verifying the impact of social environmental factors.

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An Empirical Study on Patients’ Acceptance of Physician-Patient Interaction in Online Health Communities

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16245084 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (24) ◽

pp. 5084 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Xinyi Lu ◽

Runtong Zhang ◽

Xiaomin Zhu

Keyword(s):

Behavioral Intention ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Reliability And Validity ◽

Medical Resources ◽

Online Health Communities ◽

Patient Interaction ◽

Use Of Technology ◽

Usage Behavior ◽

Health Communities ◽

Physician Patient

In China, the utilization of medical resources is contentious, and a large of hospitals are seriously congested because of the huge population and uneven distribution of medical resources. Online health communities (OHCs) provide patients with platforms to interact with physicians and to get professional suggestions and emotional support. This study adopted the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to identify factors influencing patients’ behavioral intention and usage behavior when interacting with physicians in OHCs. An investigation involving 378 valid responses was conducted through several Chinese OHCs to collect data. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were utilized to test hypotheses. Both the reliability and validity of the scales were acceptable. All five hypotheses were supported, and behavioral intention played a significant mediating role between independent variables and dependent variables. This study clarified the mechanism by which performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and attitude toward using technology affect usage behavior through the mediation of behavioral intention in OHCs. These findings suggest that OHCs can change the actions of websites such as adopting some incentives to promote patients’ intention of interaction. Physicians should understand patients’ actual attitudes toward OHCs and try to guide patients in their interactions, improving the quality of physician–patient interaction.

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Exploring the Factors Influencing Consumers to Voluntarily Reward Free Health Service Contributors in Online Health Communities: Empirical Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.16526 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Junjie Zhou ◽

Fang Liu ◽

Tingting Zhou

Keyword(s):

Social Interaction ◽

Health Service ◽

Emotional Support ◽

Social Norm ◽

Health Knowledge ◽

Informational Support ◽

Online Health Communities ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Norm Compliance ◽

Health Communities

BACKGROUND Rewarding health knowledge and health service contributors with money is one possible approach for the sustainable provision of health knowledge and health services in online health communities (OHCs); however, the reasons why consumers voluntarily reward free health knowledge and health service contributors are still underinvestigated. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to address the abovementioned gap by exploring the factors influencing consumers’ voluntary rewarding behaviors (VRBs) toward contributors of free health services in OHCs. METHODS On the basis of prior studies and the cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST), we incorporated two health service content–related variables (ie, informational support and emotional support) and two interpersonal factors (ie, social norm compliance and social interaction) and built a proposed model. We crawled a dataset from a Chinese OHC for mental health, coded it, extracted nine variables, and tested the model with a negative binomial model. RESULTS The data sample included 2148 health-related questions and 12,133 answers. The empirical results indicated that the effects of informational support (β=.168; P<.001), emotional support (β=.463; P<.001), social norm compliance (β=.510; P<.001), and social interaction (β=.281; P<.001) were significant. The moderating effects of social interaction on informational support (β=.032; P=.02) and emotional support (β=−.086; P<.001) were significant. The moderating effect of social interaction on social norm compliance (β=.014; P=.38) was insignificant. CONCLUSIONS Informational support, emotional support, social norm compliance, and social interaction positively influence consumers to voluntarily reward free online health service contributors. Social interaction enhances the effect of informational support but weakens the effect of emotional support. This study contributes to the literature on knowledge sharing in OHCs by exploring the factors influencing consumers’ VRBs toward free online health service contributors and contributes to the CEST literature by verifying that the effects of experiential and rational systems on individual behaviors can vary while external factors change.

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Factors Influencing People’s Personal Information Disclosure Behaviors in Online Health Communities: A Pilot Study

Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1177/1010539518754390 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 286-295 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Junjie Zhou

Keyword(s):

Health Information ◽

Emotional Support ◽

Information Disclosure ◽

Personal Information ◽

Severe Disease ◽

Financial Loss ◽

Online Health Communities ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Needed Information ◽

Health Communities

To effectively facilitate health information sharing and personal information protection in online health communities (OHCs), it is important to examine the factors influencing people’s personal information disclosure behavior in OHCs. Five factors were supposed as the predictors of people’s personal information disclosure behavior in OHCs. A total of 376 participants in a Chinese online cancer community were analyzed. The empirical results indicate that more participants give more attention to risk factors than motivating factors when they disclose information in OHCs. In a not so severe condition, participants post their personal information to only obtain needed information. In severe disease situations, participants disclose personal information to obtain both needed information and emotional support, and emotional support is prioritized; in addition, they even risk financial loss to seek more useful information or emotional support. OHC managers should make policies to protect people’s personal information, and thus encourage them to share more health information in OHCs.

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Exploring the Factors Influencing Consumers to Voluntarily Reward Free Health Service Contributors in Online Health Communities: Empirical Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/16526 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. e16526 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Junjie Zhou ◽

Fang Liu ◽

Tingting Zhou

Keyword(s):

Social Interaction ◽

Health Service ◽

Emotional Support ◽

Social Norm ◽

Health Knowledge ◽

Informational Support ◽

Online Health Communities ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Norm Compliance ◽

Health Communities

Background Rewarding health knowledge and health service contributors with money is one possible approach for the sustainable provision of health knowledge and health services in online health communities (OHCs); however, the reasons why consumers voluntarily reward free health knowledge and health service contributors are still underinvestigated. Objective This study aimed to address the abovementioned gap by exploring the factors influencing consumers’ voluntary rewarding behaviors (VRBs) toward contributors of free health services in OHCs. Methods On the basis of prior studies and the cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST), we incorporated two health service content–related variables (ie, informational support and emotional support) and two interpersonal factors (ie, social norm compliance and social interaction) and built a proposed model. We crawled a dataset from a Chinese OHC for mental health, coded it, extracted nine variables, and tested the model with a negative binomial model. Results The data sample included 2148 health-related questions and 12,133 answers. The empirical results indicated that the effects of informational support (β=.168; P<.001), emotional support (β=.463; P<.001), social norm compliance (β=.510; P<.001), and social interaction (β=.281; P<.001) were significant. The moderating effects of social interaction on informational support (β=.032; P=.02) and emotional support (β=−.086; P<.001) were significant. The moderating effect of social interaction on social norm compliance (β=.014; P=.38) was insignificant. Conclusions Informational support, emotional support, social norm compliance, and social interaction positively influence consumers to voluntarily reward free online health service contributors. Social interaction enhances the effect of informational support but weakens the effect of emotional support. This study contributes to the literature on knowledge sharing in OHCs by exploring the factors influencing consumers’ VRBs toward free online health service contributors and contributes to the CEST literature by verifying that the effects of experiential and rational systems on individual behaviors can vary while external factors change.

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