Examining Patterns of Information Exchange and Social Support in a Web-Based Health Community: Exponential Random Graph Models.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although an increasing number of studies have attempted to understand how people interact with others in web-based health communities, studies focusing on understanding individuals' patterns of information exchange and social support in web-based health communities are still limited. In this paper, we discuss how patients' social interactions develop into social networks based on a network exchange framework and empirically validate the framework in web-based health care community contexts.

Objective

This study aims to explore various patterns of information exchange and social support in web-based health care communities and identify factors that affect such patterns.

Methods

Using social network analysis and text mining techniques, we empirically validate

SUBMITTER: Liu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7556372 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature