The role of off-topic discussions in online health support groups: insights from a content analysis of an online rectal cancer group

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

“…In this paper, we have particularly focused on freemium problem-solving communities, and in such communities, consumers mainly exchange emotional support (eg, show or receive sympathy and make new friends or companionships) and informational support (eg, health knowledge seeking or contributing), whereas network support, esteem support, and tangible support are less salient. For example, many studies have shown that members in such communities do not form new subnetworks [16,36,47]. As a result, informational support and emotional support become the two most crucial aspects in the literature relating to freemium problem-solving communities [8,9,36,47,[50][51][52].…”

“…Such services emerge in online health communities (OHCs)-a special kind of online forums that links health care professionals and normal users [6][7][8][9][10]. In OHCs, health care professionals and consumers collaborate with each other to generate new health knowledge, such as disease symptoms and routine daily care discussions, health self-management experiences, or suggestions on treatments [5,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. The generated knowledge will become available to the public and can be freely accessed by every consumer on online SE platforms [20,21].…”

Seeking or contributing? Evidence of knowledge sharing behaviours in promoting patients’ perceived value of online health communities

“…1,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] In this study, we particularly focus on problem-solving communities where both health professionals and patients can participate and collaborate for health knowledge exchange, for example Q&A forums on health conditions, 13,17 mental health-focused Q&A forums, 18,19 pregnancy forums such as Babytree.com, 20 and cancer-focused communities. 3,21,22 In this type of OHCs, health professionals can provide professional health knowledge by contributing to the community and responding to patients' health-related questions. 20,23 Patients can disclose their personal health conditions, make new social ties, and seek or contribute health knowledge.…”

“…7,8,19,20,31,38,39 Other studies, focused on patient users, have examined the impacts of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations [4][5][6]20,33,34,40 and potential hindering factors such as trust and privacy protection. 6,24,30 As social networking is an important feature of OHCs and users in OHCs also pursue social interactions, 1,3,22 some studies have also explored the impacts of users' social capital in OHCs. 13,28,29 In addition to exploring its antecedent factors, scholars recently began to explore the health outcomes of exchanging health knowledge in OHCs.…”

“…There are different types of OHCs in which users can conduct different health‐related activities, including transactions, appointment scheduling, counselling, social networking and health‐related Q&As 1,10‐16 . In this study, we particularly focus on problem‐solving communities where both health professionals and patients can participate and collaborate for health knowledge exchange, for example Q&A forums on health conditions, 13,17 mental health‐focused Q&A forums, 18,19 pregnancy forums such as Babytree.com, 20 and cancer‐focused communities 3,21,22 . In this type of OHCs, health professionals can provide professional health knowledge by contributing to the community and responding to patients’ health‐related questions 20,23 .…”