The Impact of Online Health Communities on Patients' Health Self-Management

Roberta Bernardi, Philip Wu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

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Abstract

Online health communities offer unprecedented opportunities of empowering patients to take care of their own health and reducing the pressure of chronic diseases on the health service. Given the importance of knowledge for the empowerment of patients, the objective of this study is to understand the impact of knowledge sharing in online health communities on various aspects of health self-management. We develop a model to investigate 1) the factors that influence the level of community engagement in online communities and 2) the impact of engagement in online communities on members’ cognitive, behavioral, and emotional experiences of health self-management. We will empirically test our model through an online survey with the users of Diabetes.co.uk's forum. The study aims to provide a holistic perspective on the impact of a properly managed online health community on patients’ wellbeing.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Thirty-Eight International Conference of Information Systems: 2017 (ICIS 2017), December 10-13, 21017
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems (AIS)
Publication statusPublished - 30 Oct 2017
EventInternational Conference of Information Systems - Seoul, Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 11 Dec 201713 Dec 2017
Conference number: 38th
https://icis2017.aisnet.org

Conference

ConferenceInternational Conference of Information Systems
Abbreviated titleICIS
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period11/12/1713/12/17
Internet address

Keywords

  • Online health communities
  • Health self-management
  • Knowledge sharing
  • Diabetes

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