Patients' sociability and usability experience in online health communities: impact on attitudes towards the healthcare organisation and its services
by Priya Nambisan, David Gustafson, Suzanne Pingree, Robert Hawkins
International Journal of Web Based Communities (IJWBC), Vol. 6, No. 4, 2010

Abstract: This paper reports on an exploratory study that examined the impact of patients' sociability and usability experience in an online health community and their impact on their attitude towards the healthcare organisation (HCO) that runs the online community. The study data was collected from the online community of a healthcare programme called Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS) run by the Centre for Health Enhancement Support Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study results validate the hypotheses and show that it is important for any HCO to evaluate patients' sociability and usability experience in its online health community since the experience can impact patients' attitudes towards the HCO and its services.

Online publication date: Tue, 05-Oct-2010

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