Research On Social Relationships And Competition Behavior Of Patient In Online Health Communities

Patient participation has been an important part of the healthcare process with the center of healthcare moving towards patients from diseases. Over the past few years, the development of health information technology has provided an unprecedented opportunity for the practice of patient empowerment. Increasing patients with similar health interests join in online health communities which not only change the way patients seek health-related information and social support, but also facilitate the creation of new knowledge and tools for healthcare. Under this background, the paper raises the research question of how patients participate in online health communities and what value online health communities bring to patients. Answers to these questions can support a greater role for online health communities in healthcare. Related studies on this new research field is not sufficient and need more attention.This paper is an empirical study focusing on social relationships and competition behavior of patients in online health communities based on the literature of online communities and healthcare. The main content in the study is as follows:(1) The paper researches on the formation of patient friendship relationships in online health communities. This study utilizes Exponential Random Graph Model analysis to answer the question of what type of and to what extent homophily leads to collaborative friendship, driven by the homophily theory. Results show that health homophily such as treatments homophily and health-status homophily increases the likelihood of collaborative friendship formation. This study confirms the role of health homophily in the evolution of patient friendship networks in online health communities and provides insights for improving website design to help foster close relationship among patients and deepen levels of engagement.(2) The paper studies how identified emotional support relationships form in online health communities. The study answers this question from a social network perspective. An emotional support network is proposed. The impacts of network structure and individual characteristics related factors on the formation of the network is identified. The results indicates that the joint effects of preferential attachment, past involvement and activeness are responsible for generating the network. The study helps understand the distribution of identified emotional support in online health communities as a whole. Further, it c an help evaluate the chance of different patients provide or access identified emotional support.(3) The paper examines whether the competition strategy really facilitates the improvement of health outcomes. The study leverages a quasi experiment design in an online health community and compare the difference in health outcomes before and after competing with others for competitors to the same difference for non-competitors. To avoid the self-selection issue, the study employs the combination of propensity score matching and difference-in-differences analysis to identify and evaluate the impact of competition on health outcomes. The results suggest that competition can act as incentive to greater effort in health improvement. The study is among the first in the growing literature to bridge competition and health condition in online healthcare context, which extends our understanding of their uses. Positive influences on user ’s health from online health communities can be not only based on positive relations among patients, but also negative relations among them.(4) The paper researches on patient continued participation in online health communities. Considering the effects of community communication and self-feedback, the paper utilizes a survival analysis approach to examine under what conditions and when patient users end their competition behavior. The results show that both community communication and self-feedback can facilitate user continued competition. The role of self-feedback in continued participation is extended to the online field. The study also provides support for promoting patient continued participation in online health communities.