Perceived Community Support, Users’ Interactions, and Value Co-Creation in Online Health Community: The Moderating Effect of Social Exclusion

Abstract

Online health communities (OHCs) face the same problem as other social media platforms in terms of decreasing activity and user attrition. Drawing upon organizational support theory, this study explores how perceived community support affects user interactions and value co-creation which in turn influence their continuous participation. OHCs act as both health knowledge-sharing platforms and important social media for patients, and thus, interpersonal interactions in OHCs are categorized into health-related and general topic interactions. Considering the identity of patients, this study also examines the moderating effect of user-perceived social exclusion on the relationship between community support and user interaction. A total of 292 valid samples from a diabetic patient community in China were used to examine the proposed hypotheses through structural equation modeling. The results show that: (1) Community support has a positive effect on health topic and general topic interactions; (2) both types of interactions have significant positive effects on users’ perceived functional and social values, while general topic interaction is also related positively to users’ perceived affective value; (3) perceived functional value can result directly in continuous participation, while perceived social value contributes indirectly to continuous participation intention through perceived affective value; and (4) users perceived higher social exclusion are more influenced by community support to participate in health topic interactions than those who perceived lower social exclusion, while no significant difference in general topic interactions between two groups. The results of this study can provide implications for both researchers and practitioners.

Analysis of User Social Support Network in Online Tumor Community

“…Recalling the important role of social support networks in online health communities, Yang, Zhong, Kumar, Chow and Ouyang (2018) proposed that in online health forums, both the provision and acceptance of social support by users greatly encourage continuous social support exchanges. Liu, Fan, Ji and Jiang (2019) proposed that community support has a positive effect on the interaction between health topics and general topics. Yang, Du, Wang and Wu (2019) proposed that the scale of social support networks and the activities of individual and group members within the network are positively correlated with the level of users participating in online health tasks, and the interactive relationship between social support networks, individual user activities, and user participation are complementary.…”

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

“…68 Users' behaviours positively influence their perceived value. 56,65,[69][70][71][72][73] For example, users' engagement in VCs can improve their perception of value including expanded social relationships 69,73 and functional needs. 73 In VCs, community users can develop the perception of value through health/general topic interactions with other users.…”

“…73 In VCs, community users can develop the perception of value through health/general topic interactions with other users. [71][72][73] Besides, knowledge contributing behaviours can not only help other users to solve problems, but also are beneficial for contributors to perceive value including improved emotions and new close relationships. 56,70,72 Although social capital as environmental factors positively influence users' health outcomes, 13,28,29 few studies have explored how structural social capital influences patients' perceived value of OHCs.…”

“…Users’ behaviours positively influence their perceived value 56,65,69‐73 . For example, users’ engagement in VCs can improve their perception of value including expanded social relationships 69,73 and functional needs 73 .…”

“…For example, users’ engagement in VCs can improve their perception of value including expanded social relationships 69,73 and functional needs 73 . In VCs, community users can develop the perception of value through health/general topic interactions with other users 71‐73 . Besides, knowledge contributing behaviours can not only help other users to solve problems, but also are beneficial for contributors to perceive value including improved emotions and new close relationships 56,70,72 .…”