Effect of privacy concerns and engagement on social support behaviour in online health community platforms
Effect of privacy concerns and engagement on social support behaviour in online health community platforms
The growth of interactive technologies has fostered different online health communities (OHCs) where individuals share similar interests in health-related information and exchange social support to facilitate health outcomes. While OHCs offer a variety of benefits to society, it is challenged by surrounding issues of privacy concerns. Breach of privacy poses undesirable consequences for people, and thus privacy concerns can influence individuals' social support behaviour in OHC platforms. Moreover, willingness to engage in the community can be an outcome of prosocial behaviour, motivating people to offer additional social support on OHC platforms. Hence, addressing the role of engagement in a multi-actor online environment requires further attention. Drawing on social support theory, by examining the effects of privacy concerns, control of information, and community engagement, this study develops a framework to create an informed and sharing online community. Using survey data collected from different OHC platforms on Facebook, our study presents some interesting conclusions. Our results show that community engagement and privacy concerns can influence certain types of social support (i.e., information or emotional support), leading to OHC members' intention to participate. Our conceptual model and findings will inform both future research and policymakers.
Community engagement, Online health community, Perceived control of information, Privacy, Social support
Tseng, D.
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Ibrahim, F.
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Hajli, N.
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Nisar, Tahir
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Shabbir, D.
d0416584-553c-45ab-a0e4-cd2192ba76e5
May 2022
Tseng, D.
025ffffc-9613-4d5a-bc7e-2d40d1b6b090
Ibrahim, F.
bdfeefdb-b0d6-4c1e-962d-8675d82488ea
Hajli, N.
ca0f5a0e-a492-4995-a905-d7d652e55c96
Nisar, Tahir
6b1513b5-23d1-4151-8dd2-9f6eaa6ea3a6
Shabbir, D.
d0416584-553c-45ab-a0e4-cd2192ba76e5
Tseng, D., Ibrahim, F., Hajli, N., Nisar, Tahir and Shabbir, D.
(2022)
Effect of privacy concerns and engagement on social support behaviour in online health community platforms.
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 178, [121592].
(doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121592).
Abstract
The growth of interactive technologies has fostered different online health communities (OHCs) where individuals share similar interests in health-related information and exchange social support to facilitate health outcomes. While OHCs offer a variety of benefits to society, it is challenged by surrounding issues of privacy concerns. Breach of privacy poses undesirable consequences for people, and thus privacy concerns can influence individuals' social support behaviour in OHC platforms. Moreover, willingness to engage in the community can be an outcome of prosocial behaviour, motivating people to offer additional social support on OHC platforms. Hence, addressing the role of engagement in a multi-actor online environment requires further attention. Drawing on social support theory, by examining the effects of privacy concerns, control of information, and community engagement, this study develops a framework to create an informed and sharing online community. Using survey data collected from different OHC platforms on Facebook, our study presents some interesting conclusions. Our results show that community engagement and privacy concerns can influence certain types of social support (i.e., information or emotional support), leading to OHC members' intention to participate. Our conceptual model and findings will inform both future research and policymakers.
Text
Final Manuscript_TFSC RR2 Submission 09 01 22
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 20 February 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 March 2022
Published date: May 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan under The Einstein Program: Project Number MOST 110–2636-H-008–003- and MOST 111–2636-H-008–003- .
Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan under The Einstein Program: Project Number MOST 110?2636-H-008?003- and MOST 111?2636-H-008?003-.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.
Keywords:
Community engagement, Online health community, Perceived control of information, Privacy, Social support
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 455753
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/455753
ISSN: 0040-1625
PURE UUID: a750d4b5-845b-4b9b-913e-4bde9209d5ab
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Date deposited: 01 Apr 2022 16:37
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 07:10
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Contributors
Author:
D. Tseng
Author:
F. Ibrahim
Author:
N. Hajli
Author:
D. Shabbir
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