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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1379094
This article is part of the Research Topic Health Misinformation: Examining Its Presence and Impact across Communication Contexts View all 4 articles

Factors Influencing User's Health Information Discernment Abilities in Online Health Communities: Based on SEM and fsQCA

Provisionally accepted
Caiping Wei Caiping Wei 1Yufeng Cai Yufeng Cai 1Jianwei Liu Jianwei Liu 1Yi Guo Yi Guo 1Xusheng Wu Xusheng Wu 2Xiaofeng He Xiaofeng He 2DEHUA HU DEHUA HU 1*
  • 1 Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Life Science, Central South University, Changsha, China
  • 2 Shenzhen Health Development Research and Data Management Center, Shenzhen, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Online health communities have become the main source for people to obtain health information.However, the existence of poor-quality health information, misinformation, and rumors in online health communities increases the challenges in governing information quality. It not only affects users' health decisions but also undermines social stability. It is of great significance to explore the factors that affect users' ability to discern information in online health communities. This study integrated the Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory, Information Ecology Theory and the Mindsponge Theory to constructed a model of factors influencing users' health information discernment abilities in online health communities. A questionnaire was designed based on the variables in the model, and data was collected. Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in conjunction with fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), the study analyzed the complex causal relationships among stimulus factors, user perception, and the health information discernment abilities. The results revealed that the dimensions of information, information environment, information technology, and information people all positively influenced health information discernment abilities. Four distinct configurations were identified as triggers for users' health information discernment abilities. The core conditions included information source, informational support, technological security, technological facilitation, and perceived risk. It was also observed that information quality and emotional support can act as substitutes for one another, as can informational support and emotional support. This study fills the conceptual gap of health information discernment abilities of online health community users and provides a new perspective to study the influencing factors of health information discernment abilities. It can provide experiences and references for online health community information services, information resource construction and the development of users' health information discernment abilities.

    Keywords: online health communities, Health Information Discernment Abilities, information ecology theory, perceived value, fsQCA

    Received: 30 Jan 2024; Accepted: 04 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wei, Cai, Liu, Guo, Wu, He and HU. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: DEHUA HU, Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Life Science, Central South University, Changsha, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.