Role of empowerment and sense of community on online social health support group

Abstract

Purpose Drawing on the taxonomy of patient empowerment and a sense of community (SoC), the purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that impact the intention of the individual to continue using online social health support community for their chronic disease management. Design/methodology/approach A survey design was used to collect the data from multiple online social health support groups related to chronic disease management. The survey yielded a total of 246 usable responses. Findings The primary findings from this study indicate that the informational support – not the nurturant support such as emotional, network, and esteem support – are the major types of support people are seeking from an online social health support community. This research also found that patient empowerment and SoC would positively impact their intention to continue using the online health community. Research limitations/implications This study utilized a survey design method may limit precision and realism. Also, there is the self-selection bias as the respondents self-selected themselves to take the survey. Practical implications The findings can help the community managers or webmasters to design strategies for the promotion and diffusion of online social health group among patient of chronic disease. Those strategies should focus on patient’s empowerment through action facilitating and social support and through creating a SoC. Originality/value An innovative research model integrates patient empowerment and a SoC to study patient’s chronic disease management through online social health groups to fill the existing research gap.

Enablers of Patient Knowledge Empowerment for Self-Management of Chronic Disease: An Integrative Review

“…Empowering patients for independent disease management also has a positive effect on the patient’s psychological state through patient self-confidence [ 4 , 8 , 9 ], positive self-perception [ 9 ], and self-esteem [ 3 ]. Research also highlights the results of patient empowerment via the social dimension, as empowering the patient to act independently has a positive effect on his interpersonal relationships with relatives, healthcare professionals [ 5 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ], and communities of patients with the same disease [ 32 ]. Finally, the empowerment of a patient with chronic illness manifests itself in their behavior through conscious internal control of behavior self-efficacy, which allows them to make rational decisions for self-management of chronic illness and is a key precondition for health behaviors [ 9 , 33 ].…”

“…The stages of the action cycle can occur sequentially or overlap, and the cycle of knowledge formation can influence the action cycle at any stage. The elements of the action cycle focus on deliberately bringing about change in healthcare systems and groups [ 32 , 33 ].…”

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“…The above behaviors are different types of user behaviors, contributing behaviors, social support behaviors, and patients' doctor selection behavior, etc.. Yang and Zhu (2020) believe that based on the information ecosystem, online health communities mainly include information people, information, information environment, and information technology. Research by Sharma and Khadka (2019) showed that information support is the main type of support people seek from online social health support communities. Realizing the complexities of information behavior and the needs in the online health community, it makes us to ask more and more questions.…”

Taxi within a grab? A gender-invariant model of mobile taxi adoption

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