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. 2021 Jun 28;21(1):201.
doi: 10.1186/s12911-021-01561-3.

Diabetes self-management in online health communities: an information exchange perspective

Jing Min  1 , Yan Chen  2 , Li Wang  1 , Ting He  1 , Sha Tang  1
Affiliations

Diabetes self-management in online health communities: an information exchange perspective

Jing Min et al. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. .

Abstract

Background: Online health communities (OHCs), with a wealth of multi-source information exchange, have provided a convenient way for people with diabetes to actively participate in their self-management and have been widely used. Information exchange assists people with diabetes with health-related decisions to actively engage in their care, and reduce the occurrence of potential complications of diabetes. However, there has been relatively little research on the information exchange behaviors and their effect on health in professional online medical platforms-OHCs.

Objective: Using a social exchange theory, this study focuses on two sources of information (doctors and people with diabetes) to investigate information exchange behaviors and consequences. Moreover, we also examine moderating effects of information price as patients need to pay prices for consulting with doctors to obtain medical information on OHCs.

Methods: By using the Python program, a rich dataset contained 22,746 doctor-patient dialogues from December 2017 to December 2018 is collected from the biggest OHC in China. Then the logistic and ordinal regression models are used to get empirical results.

Results: We found that first information sharing from doctors and other people with diabetes can promote their information sharing behavior. Second, the moderating effects of information price are heterogeneous and change with the exchange participants. Third, rich information exchange supports self-management of people with diabetes and improves their health status.

Conclusion: This study is among the first that tests the information exchange behavior and consequence for diabetes in OHCs and examines the moderating effects of the information price. The present study produces several insights, which have implications for social exchange, patient behavior, online health communities, and information technology in diabetes self-management literature.

Keywords: Health Information Exchange; Health care costs; Self-management; eHealth.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The conceptual model
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A doctor’s homepage
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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