Research On Users’ Cognitive Factors Of Information Exchange Behaviors In Online Health Communities

With the rapid development of "Internet + medical" and the enhancement of citizens’ health awareness,the online health community has become an important way for people to exchange health information.The online medical service provided by online health communities is an important support for users to make health decisions.Exchanging health information in online health communities can improve personal health management capabilities and health conditions.Thus,the research on the cognitive factors of users’ health information exchanges is significance for improving the quality of health information exchanges,enhancing user stickiness in online health communities,and promoting the sustainable development of online health communities.Based on the Health Belief Model and Theory of Planned Behavior,combined with e-health literacy and health numeracy,this study constructed a research model of the cognitive factors of health information exchange behavior in online health communities.A total of 386 valid questionnaires were collected,and the structural equation model was used to test the measurement model and the structural model.Then,the fuzzy qualitative comparative analysis method was used to review the path of all the influence factors on the occurrence of health information exchange behavior and the non-occurrence of health information exchange behavior.The study found out that:(1)The SEM analysis verified that Action cues,perceived benefits,behavioral attitude,health anxiety,health numeracy,and e-health literacy each had a significant positive effect on health information exchange behavior;behavioral attitude and health anxiety were two emotional variables that completely mediated between health risk perception and health information exchange behavior;perceived susceptibility,perceived severity,and perceived barriers had no significant impact on health exchange behavior.(2)The fsQCA analysis shows that health information exchange behavior happened or didn’t happened were complex processes affected by multiple factors,and they are the result of multiple antecedent variables.All variables in the model had an impact on health information exchange behavior by combining with other variables.(3)The configuration analysis of qualitative comparative analysis and the net effect analysis of traditional regression analysis are not mutually substitute methods,but two complementary methods.Qualitative comparative analysis can be used as an auxiliary method to further test the existing hypotheses and explore the configuration path of each antecedent condition,explore the influence path of each variable on the result variable,and clarify the mechanism of each variable.Finally,according to the effect of each variable on the health information exchange behavior,suggestions were put forward for the development of the online health community and promoting information exchange behaviors in the online health community.