文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Research on gender differences in online health communities

作者：Liu, Xuan[1];Sun, Min[1];Li, Jia[1]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Business, 130 Meilong Rd, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China

年份：2018

卷号：111

起止页码：172

外文期刊名：INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS

收录：;EI(收录号：20180604767406);WOS:【SSCI(收录号:WOS:000424320100021)，SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:000424320100021)】；

基金：This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grant numbers 71471064, 71371005, and 91646205, and also supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

语种：英文

外文关键词：Gender difference; OHC; Topic modeling analysis; Sentiment analysis; Friendship network analysis

摘要：With the growing concern about health issues and the emergence of online communities based on user-generated content (UGC), more and more people are participating in online health communities (OHCs) to exchange opinions and health information. This paper aims to examine whether and how male and female users behave differently in OHCs. Using data from a leading diabetes community in China (Tianmijiayuan), we incorporate three different techniques: topic modeling analysis, sentiment analysis and friendship network analysis to investigate gender differences in chronic online health communities. The results indicated that (1) Male users' posting content was usually more professional and included more medical terms. Comparatively speaking, female users were more inclined to seek emotional support in the health communities. (2) Female users expressed more negative emotions than male users did, especially anxiety and sadness. (3) In addition, male users were more centered and influential in the friendship network than were women. Through these analyses, our research revealed the behavioral characteristics and needs for different gender users in online health communities. Gaining a deeper understanding of gender differences in OHCs can serve as guidance to better meet the information needs, emotional needs and relationship needs of male and female patients.