An Online Social Networking Service as a Source of Support and Health Information – A Study on...
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Question Three most frequent codes (frequency of occurence) Reasons for registering to the service 1. interest in the topics (2), presence of medical professionals (2), sharing own experiences and reading about other people’s experiences (2), usefulness of the service (2) 2. positive atmosphere (1), finding people to talk to (1), passing the time (1), receiving support (1) Reasons and purposes for using the service 1. getting information (18) 2. sharing own experiences and reading about other people’s experiences (8) 3. giving and/or receiving support and encouragement (7) Best about the service 1. giving and/or receiving support and encouragement (9) 2. friends and other users (5), positive and encouraging atmosphere (5) 3. clear and easy to use (4), hugs (4), presence of medical professionals (4) Bad about the service 1. too little or lack of information on some specific medical issues (3), too much of virtual hugging (3), usability problems (3) 2. lack of trust in the doctor’s answers (2) 3. lack of information about the maintenance staff (1) Reasons to keep using the service 1. friends and other users (10) 2. giving and/or receiving support and encouragement (6), positive and encouraging atmosphere (6), 3. getting information (5) Most useful features of the service 1. information (11) 2. possibilities for discussion (8) 3. doctor’s answers (4) Problems in using the service 1. usage was difficult in the beginning (7) 2. varying usability problems (3) Requests for development 1. more of medical professionals participation (4) 2. varying requests for certain medical information (3) 3. making things more clear (2) An Online Social Networking Service as a Source of Support and Health Information – A Study on Users’ Experiences UBI-SERV Project www.ubi-serv.org This research was supported by the Academy of Finland under grant no 129446. INTRODUCTION The objective of this study is to construct a view on health-related use of Web 2.0 from the perspective of the users themselves. We chose to survey the views, experiences and opinions of the users of Hoitonetti.fi, a Finnish health- focused online social networking service. Hoitonetti.fi has approximately 2300 registered users and a greater amount of unregistered visitors. Figure 1 illustrates the registered users’ age distribution. Figure 1. A breakdown of the registered users of Hoitonetti.fi by age. The site consists of registered users’ own profile pages and separate information pages dedicated to specific illnesses (e.g. asthma), symptoms (e.g. dizziness), treatments (e.g. antihistamines) or health measurement related values (e.g. haemoglobin concentration). The information pages are written by medical experts and controlled by Hoitonetti.fi maintenance whereas the users’ own profile pages are updated by the users themselves. Users can add illnesses, symptoms, treatments and health values to their profiles together with personal experiences interlinking the users’ profiles to the information pages. Each information page contains a section for discussion where both registered and unregistered users can post. The maintenance team of the service includes medical professionals responsible for monitoring and taking part in the discussions and answering questions. Registered users can also among other things join communities, maintain a list of virtual friendships and send virtual hugs to each other. METHODS Information on the users’ views of using Hoitonetti.fi was collected with an online questionnaire consisting of eight open-ended questions that surveyed the users’ motivations, reasons and purposes for using the service as well as the positive and negative aspects of the service. A qualitative approach was chosen in order to receive rich and diversified feedback and open-ended questions served this purpose. In addition, several background questions were included in the online questionnaire. Received responses were analyzed utilizing the procedures of qualitative content analysis: all the web questionnaire responses were first open coded to conceptualize the qualitative data, the frequency of occurrence for each code was calculated and the codes were organized according to their frequency. Then common themes were identified based on the most frequent codes and by combining them into larger categories. RESULTS A total of 31 responses were received none of which were excluded from the analysis. A clear majority (25 out of 31) of the respondents were women. The respondents’ age distribution is illustrated in Figure 2. 24 out of the 31 respondents were registered users. Figure 2. Respondents’ age distribution. Table 1 shows the results of the coding procedure. It lists the three codes with the highest frequency of occurrence for each question. CONCLUSIONS The results reveal two sides to the respondents' participation in the service, 1) support and sharing, and 2) sourcing information (see Figure 3). A strong emphasis in the responses was on finding peer support and sharing experiences via the online social network service. Peer support and sharing of experiences hold an emotional aspect as well as a practical aspect. The emotional aspect is about giving and receiving encouragement and comfort whereas the practical aspect is about getting useful tips and advice that might be helpful in the specific condition. Also the importance of a supportive, open and positive atmosphere on the website came forward in many of the responses. Anonymity is also relevant in this specific network: some of the respondents stated that on Hoitonetti.fi they can discuss matters that they wouldn’t expose face-to-face. Finding information was the single most often mentioned factor in the users' responses. Having a doctor answering questions was considered important and a desirable feature, but it was also an essential part of making the Table 1. Results of the coding procedure during qualitative analysis of the responses. virtual environment feel safe. Safety and trust are important aspects of the users’ experiences and moderation of discussions and removal of inappropriate messages by the professionals is essential in this respect as well. Figure 3. An illustration of the common themes identified with the qualitative analysis. Iiro Jantunen, Timo Korhonen Xirui Wang Department of Communications and Networking, Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Espoo, Finland [email protected] Maija Pekkola Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland [email protected] Mika Vatanen Mediweb Oy, Helsinki, Finland [email protected] 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 10-19 yrs 20-29 yrs 30-39 yrs 40-49 yrs 50-59 yrs 60-69 yrs 70-79 yrs 80+ yrs Age Number of registered users 0 2 4 6 8 10 20-29 yrs 30-39 yrs 40-49 yrs 50-59 yrs 60-69 yrs 70-80 yrs Age Number of respondents
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Transcript of An Online Social Networking Service as a Source of Support and Health Information – A Study on...
Question Three most frequent codes (frequency of occurence)
Reasons for registering to the service
1. interest in the topics (2), presence of medical professionals (2), sharing own experiences and reading about other people’s experiences (2), usefulness of the service (2)2. positive atmosphere (1), finding people to talk to (1), passing the time (1), receiving support (1)
Reasons and purposes for using the service
1. getting information (18)2. sharing own experiences and reading about other people’s experiences (8)3. giving and/or receiving support and encouragement (7)
Best about the service
1. giving and/or receiving support and encouragement (9)2. friends and other users (5), positive and encouraging atmosphere (5)3. clear and easy to use (4), hugs (4), presence of medical professionals (4)
Bad about the service
1. too little or lack of information on some specific medical issues (3), too much of virtual hugging (3), usability problems (3)2. lack of trust in the doctor’s answers (2)3. lack of information about the maintenance staff (1)
Reasons to keep using the service
1. friends and other users (10)2. giving and/or receiving support and encouragement (6), positive and encouraging atmosphere (6), 3. getting information (5)
Most useful features of the service
1. information (11)2. possibilities for discussion (8) 3. doctor’s answers (4)
Problems in using the service
1. usage was difficult in the beginning (7)2. varying usability problems (3)
Requests for development
1. more of medical professionals participation (4)2. varying requests for certain medical information (3)3. making things more clear (2)
An Online Social Networking
Service as a Source of
Support and Health Information –
A Study on Users’
Experiences
UBI-SERV Project
www.ubi-serv.org
This research was supported by the Academy of Finland under grant no 129446.
INTRODUCTION
The objective of this study is to construct a view on health-related use of Web 2.0 from the perspective of the users themselves. We chose to survey the views, experiences and opinions of the users of Hoitonetti.fi, a Finnish health-focused online social networking service. Hoitonetti.fi has approximately 2300 registered users and a greater amount of unregistered visitors. Figure 1 illustrates the registered users’ age distribution.
Figure 1. A breakdown of the registered users
of Hoitonetti.fi by age.
The site consists of registered users’ own profile pages and separate information pages dedicated to specific illnesses (e.g. asthma), symptoms (e.g. dizziness), treatments (e.g. antihistamines) or health measurement related values (e.g. haemoglobin concentration). The information pages are written by medical experts and controlled by Hoitonetti.fi maintenance whereas the users’ own profile pages are updated by the users themselves. Users can add illnesses, symptoms, treatments and health values to their profiles together with personal experiences interlinking the users’ profiles to the information pages. Each information page contains a section for discussion where both registered and unregistered users can post. The maintenance team of the service includes medical professionals responsible for monitoring and taking part in the discussions and answering questions. Registered users can also among other things join communities, maintain a list of virtual friendships and send virtual hugs to each other.
METHODS
Information on the users’ views of using Hoitonetti.fi was collected with an online questionnaire consisting of eight open-ended questions that surveyed the users’ motivations, reasons and purposes for using the service as well as the positive and negative aspects of the service. A qualitative approach was chosen in order to receive rich and diversified feedback and open-ended questions served this purpose. In addition, several background questions were included in the online questionnaire.
Received responses were analyzed utilizing the procedures of qualitative content analysis: all the web questionnaire responses were first open coded to conceptualize the qualitative data, the frequency of occurrence for each code was calculated and the codes were organized according to their frequency. Then common themes were identified based on the most frequent codes and by combining them into larger categories.
RESULTS
A total of 31 responses were received none of which were excluded from the analysis. A clear majority (25 out of 31) of the respondents were women. The respondents’ age distribution is illustrated in Figure 2. 24 out of the 31 respondents were registered users.
Figure 2. Respondents’ age distribution.
Table 1 shows the results of the coding procedure. It lists the three codes with the highest frequency of occurrence for each question.
CONCLUSIONS
The results reveal two sides to the respondents' participation in the service, 1) support and sharing, and 2) sourcing information (see Figure 3). A strong emphasis in the responses was on finding peer support and sharing experiences via the online social network service. Peer support and sharing of experiences hold an emotional aspect as well as a practical aspect. The emotional aspect is about giving and receiving encouragement and comfort whereas the practical aspect is about getting useful tips and advice that might be helpful in the specific condition. Also the importance of a supportive, open and positive atmosphere on the website came forward in many of the responses. Anonymity is also relevant in this specific network: some of the respondents stated that on Hoitonetti.fi they can discuss matters that they wouldn’t expose face-to-face.
Finding information was the single most often mentioned factor in the users' responses. Having a doctor answering questions was considered important and a desirable feature, but it was also an essential part of making the
Table 1. Results of the coding procedure
during qualitative analysis of the responses.
virtual environment feel safe. Safety and trust are important aspects of the users’ experiences and moderation of discussions and removal of inappropriate messages by the professionals is essential in this respect as well.
Figure 3. An illustration of the common
themes identified with the qualitative
analysis.
Iiro Jantunen, Timo Korhonen Xirui Wang
Department of Communications and Networking, Aalto University School of Science and Technology,
Espoo, Finland
Maija Pekkola
Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
Mika Vatanen
Mediweb Oy, Helsinki, Finland
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
10-19
yrs
20-29
yrs
30-39
yrs
40-49
yrs
50-59
yrs
60-69
yrs
70-79
yrs
80+ y
rs
Age
Num
ber o
f
regi
ster
ed u
sers
0
2
4
6
8
10
20-29
yrs
30-39
yrs
40-49
yrs
50-59
yrs
60-69
yrs
70-80
yrs
Age
Nu
mb
er o
f re
spo
nd
ents
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