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A Comparative Study of Online Depression Communities in China

Author

Listed:
  • Jingyun Tang

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Guang Yu

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

  • Xiaoxu Yao

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China)

Abstract

Online communities have become a tool for researchers to understand and help individuals with depression. According to their operation mode in terms of management, communities can be divided into management depression communities (MDCs) and lacking-management depression communities (LDCs). This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and impact of LDCs in comparison with MDCs. All postings from the previous year were collected from the LDC and MDC. Keywords were extracted and coded to identify the themes, and a text classifier was built to identify the type of emotions and social support expressed in the postings. Community members were then clustered to explore their different participation patterns. We found that in the LDC, the expression of negative emotions was the most popular theme, there was a lack of information about the treatment of depression and a lack of social support providers, the level of engagement of providers was low, and support seekers did not receive attention. These results reveal the need for community management and can be used to develop more effective measures to support members of online depression communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingyun Tang & Guang Yu & Xiaoxu Yao, 2020. "A Comparative Study of Online Depression Communities in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5023-:d:383757
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Melanie Swan, 2009. "Emerging Patient-Driven Health Care Models: An Examination of Health Social Networks, Consumer Personalized Medicine and Quantified Self-Tracking," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-34, February.
    2. Xianyun Tian & Philip Batterham & Shuang Song & Xiaoxu Yao & Guang Yu, 2018. "Characterizing Depression Issues on Sina Weibo," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-11, April.
    3. Zheng Wang & Guang Yu & Xianyun Tian, 2018. "Exploring Behavior of People with Suicidal Ideation in a Chinese Online Suicidal Community," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Charrad, Malika & Ghazzali, Nadia & Boiteau, Véronique & Niknafs, Azam, 2014. "NbClust: An R Package for Determining the Relevant Number of Clusters in a Data Set," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 61(i06).
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    Cited by:

    1. Xuening Wang & Xianyun Tian & Xuwei Pan & Dongxu Wei & Qi Qi, 2021. "What Happens When People with Depression Gather Online?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-12, August.
    2. Zhizhen Yao & Zhenni Ni & Bin Zhang & Jian Du, 2022. "Do Informational and Emotional Elements Differ between Online Psychological and Physiological Disease Communities in China? A Comparative Study of Depression and Diabetes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-21, February.
    3. Fan Yang & Yao Jiang, 2020. "Heterogeneous Influences of Social Support on Physical and Mental Health: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-17, September.

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