ArticleJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA2011
Information seeking and social support in online health communities: impact on patients' perceived empathy.
Article in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers.
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Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed.
- A randomised feasibility trial comparing group and individual format GROUPS FOR HEALTH interventions for loneliness in people who experience psychosis.Psychology and psychotherapy · 2025Trial
- Stage-Based Model of User Engagement Patterns in an Online Health Community for Cardiovascular Disease Management: Qualitative Interview Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Large Language Model-Assisted Annotation Framework for Cross-Platform Analysis of Online Autism Communities: Implications for Parent Education and Digital Support.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- How Cancer Online Support Groups Work, for Whom, and in What Circumstances: Realist Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Review
- Internet and Media Use in the Context of Infertility and Assisted Reproductive Technology: Empowerment or Overload?Cureus · 2026Article
- The role of brain health and resilience in reshaping trajectories of late-life neuropsychiatric disorders.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- The role of mobile devices in fostering the engagement of stigmatized patients in online health communities.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Women's Educating and Coping Strategies for Cultivating Supportive Web-Based Spaces for Discussing Sexual and Reproductive Health: Co-Design Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Perceptions of Telehealth-Based Cancer Support Groups at a Rural Community Oncology Program.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2024Article
- 'No matter what time of day': The value of joining Facebook groups supporting women's self-management of gestational diabetes mellitus.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
- The Role of Technology in Online Health Communities: A Study of Information-Seeking Behavior.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- A qualitative exploration of online forums to support resilience of rural young people in Australia.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The preferred IT sources and tools of Iranian people for accessing health information.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Social Support Among Women With Potential Essure-Related Complaints: Analysis of Facebook Group Content.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Configuration Path Study of Influencing Factors on Health Information-Sharing Behavior among Users of Online Health Communities: Based on SEM and fsQCA Methods.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Growth curve modeling of virtual events and online engagement in a palliative care peer support online health community for adolescents and young adults.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2023Article
- The Effects of Patient Health Information Seeking in Online Health Communities on Patient Compliance in China: Social Perspective.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Analysis of Patient Cues in Asynchronous Health Interactions: Pilot Study Combining Empathy Appraisal and Systemic Functional Linguistics.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Exploring the effects of health information seeking on e-satisfaction in online health communities: an empirical investigation.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2022Article
- Social support in a parenting Facebook group during the COVID-19 pandemic.Family relations · 2022Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveMany healthcare organizations (HCOs) including Kaiser Permanente, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Medical Center, and MD Anderson Cancer Center, provide access to online health communities as part of their overall patient support services. The key objective in establishing and running these online health communities is to offer empathic support to patients. Patients' perceived empathy is considered to be critical in patient recovery, specifically, by enhancing patient's compliance with treatment protocols and the pace of healing. Most online health communities are characterized by two main functions: informational support and social support. This study examines the relative impact of these two distinct functions-that is, as an information seeking forum and as a social support forum-on patients' perceived empathy in online health communities.
designThis study tests the impact of two variables that reflect the above functions of online health communities-information seeking effectiveness and perceived social support-on perceived empathy. The model also incorporates the potential moderating effect of homophily on these relationships. MEASUREMENTS: A web-based survey was used to collect data from members of the online health communities provided by three major healthcare centers. A regression technique was used to analyze the data to test the hypotheses.
resultsThe study finds that it is the information seeking effectiveness rather than the social support which affects patient's perceived empathy in online health communities run by HCOs. The results indicate that HCOs that provide online health communities for their patients need to focus more on developing tools that will make information seeking more effective and efficient.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.