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Health information needs and feedback of users in the online TCM community

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  • Lei Nie
  • Jiayi Xu
  • Ruojia Wang

Abstract

To improve the information service quality of the online Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) community, this study investigated users’ information needs, feedback and the relationship between them. Using qualitative content analysis, the basic characteristics of users’ needs were obtained. Logistic regression was used to explore the impact of different need characteristics of feedback. The main findings are as follows: 1) Disease consultation, health preservation, professional discussion, knowledge sharing and experience description are the major 5 types of information needs in the online TCM community; 2) Some users provided TCM-related information, such as the tongue image and the TCM four diagnosis; 3) A total of 78.8% of the posts received effective feedback, and the main types of feedback were answering, discussing, inquiring and emotional supporting; 4) Providing enough information can significantly and positively affect whether needs receive effective feedback, suggesting that users can present information about their condition in as many different formats as possible when articulating their needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei Nie & Jiayi Xu & Ruojia Wang, 2024. "Health information needs and feedback of users in the online TCM community," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(3), pages 1-17, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0301536
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301536
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wenlong Liu & Xiucheng Fan & Rongrong Ji & Yi Jiang, 2019. "Perceived Community Support, Users’ Interactions, and Value Co-Creation in Online Health Community: The Moderating Effect of Social Exclusion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Jyh-Jeng Wu & Yueh-Mei Chen & Paul C. Talley & Kuang-Ming Kuo, 2021. "Does Online Community Participation Contribute to Medication Adherence? An Empirical Study of Patients with Chronic Diseases," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-16, May.
    3. 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.
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