Abstract
BackgroundWith the rapid development of online health communities, increasing numbers of patients and families are seeking health information on the internet.ObjectiveThis study aimed to discuss how to fully reveal the health information needs expressed by patients with hypertension in their questions in a web-based environment and how to use the internet to help patients with hypertension receive personalized health education.MethodsThis study randomly selected 1000 text records from the question data of patients with hypertension from 2008 to 2018 collected from Good Doctor Online and constructed a classification system through literature research and content analysis. This paper identified the background characteristics and questioning intention of each patient with hypertension based on the patient’s question and used co-occurrence network analysis and the k-means clustering method to explore the features of the health information needs of patients with hypertension.ResultsThe classification system for the health information needs of patients with hypertension included the following nine dimensions: drugs (355 names), symptoms and signs (395 names), tests and examinations (545 names), demographic data (526 kinds), diseases (80 names), risk factors (37 names), emotions (43 kinds), lifestyles (6 kinds), and questions (49 kinds). There were several characteristics of the explored web-based health information needs of patients with hypertension. First, more than 49% of patients described features, such as drugs, symptoms and signs, tests and examinations, demographic data, and diseases. Second, patients with hypertension were most concerned about treatment (778/1000, 77.80%), followed by diagnosis (323/1000, 32.30%). Third, 65.80% (658/1000) of patients asked physicians several questions at the same time. Moreover, 28.30% (283/1000) of patients were very concerned about how to adjust the medication, and they asked other treatment-related questions at the same time, including drug side effects, whether to take the drugs, how to treat the disease, etc. Furthermore, 17.60% (176/1000) of patients consulted physicians about the causes of clinical findings, including the relationship between the clinical findings and a disease, the treatment of a disease, and medications and examinations. Fourth, by k-means clustering, the questioning intentions of patients with hypertension were classified into the following seven categories: “how to adjust medication,” “what to do,” “how to treat,” “phenomenon explanation,” “test and examination,” “disease diagnosis,” and “disease prognosis.”ConclusionsIn a web-based environment, the health information needs expressed by Chinese patients with hypertension to physicians are common and distinct, that is, patients with different background features ask relatively common questions to physicians. The classification system constructed in this study can provide guidance to health information service providers for the construction of web-based health resources, as well as guidance for patient education, which could help solve the problem of information asymmetry in communication between physicians and patients.
Highlights
In a web-based environment, the health information needs expressed by Chinese patients with hypertension to physicians are common and distinct, that is, patients with different background features ask relatively common questions to physicians
The research perspective of this study was to reflect the features of the information needs of patients with hypertension or their families in an internet-based environment according to the textual information disclosed by patients in an online health community when consulting with physicians
Feature mining of the background dimension system can reflect the personalized features of the health information needs of every patient with hypertension on the internet
Summary
BackgroundHypertension is currently the most common chronic disease and is a major risk factor for the morbidity and mortality of stroke and coronary heart disease in China [1]. An online health community allows users to avoid long waits when seeking health information services, especially those with hypertension who need long-term self-health management at home. Wicks et al [8] showed that an online health community can help users benefit from managing their own disease symptoms, treating side effects, finding fellow patients, and asking for medication advice. This will help patients with hypertension reduce information asymmetry with physicians by personalized health education and improve their compliance. The research perspective of this study was to reflect the features of the information needs of patients with hypertension or their families in an internet-based environment according to the textual information disclosed by patients in an online health community when consulting with physicians. With the rapid development of online health communities, increasing numbers of patients and families are seeking health information on the internet
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