Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 24, 2021
Date Accepted: Aug 12, 2021
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
What Makes a Health-Related Answer Popular on Social Q&A Sites: The Case of HPV Vaccine Topic on Zhihu
ABSTRACT
Background:
Social question-and-answer (Q&A) sites have become an important venue for individuals to obtain and share human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine knowledge.
Objective:
The present study aims to examine how different features of an HPV vaccine answer are associated with users’ response behaviors on social Q&A sites.
Methods:
A total of 2,953 answers and 270 corresponding questions regarding the HPV vaccine were collected from a leading Chinese social Q&A platform, Zhihu. Three types of key features, including content, context, and contributor, were extracted and coded. Negative binomial regression models were employed to examine their impacts on the vote and comment count of an HPV vaccine answer.
Results:
The findings showed that both content length and vividness were positively related to response behaviors of HPV vaccine answers. In addition, compared to answers under the question theme “benefits and risks,” answers under the question theme “vaccination experience” received fewer votes and answers under the theme “news opinions” received more votes but fewer comments. The effects of contributors’ characteristics were also supported, suggesting that answers from a male contributor with more followers and no professional identity would attract more votes and comments from community members. The significant interaction effect between content and context features further showed that long and vivid answers about HPV vaccination experience are more likely to receive users’ votes and comments than those about benefits and risks.
Conclusions:
The study provides a complete picture of the dynamic mechanisms behind users’ response behaviors towards HPV vaccine answers on social Q&A sites. The results help health community organizers develop better strategies for building and maintaining a vibrant online community for communicating HPV vaccine knowledge.
Citation
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