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Updated: May 10, 2026
11:21
Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
Building trusting relationships in online health communities
Jing Zhao1, Sejin Ha, Richard Widdows
11 Department of Marketing and Tourism Management, Wuhan University , Wuhan, Hubei, China .
Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking
|June 22, 2013
Summary
Online health communities (OHCs) build trust through perspective-taking and self-efficacy, influencing member commitment and knowledge sharing. Trust is key for continued participation and contribution in these digital health spaces.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Social Psychology
- Consumer Behavior
Background:
- Online health communities (OHCs) are increasingly utilized by consumers for healthcare information and support.
- Understanding the relational dynamics within OHCs is crucial for sustained engagement and knowledge exchange.
- The commitment-trust theory provides a framework for examining relationship development in online settings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the factors influencing trust development in OHCs from a relationship-building perspective.
- To examine the impact of perspective taking, empathic concern, self-efficacy, and network density on cognitive and affective trust.
- To determine how cognitive and affective trust influence membership continuance intention (MCI) and knowledge contribution behaviors within OHCs.
Main Methods:
- The study employed a quantitative approach, collecting data from 255 members across eight existing OHCs.
- A hypothesized model was tested using statistical analysis to evaluate the proposed relationships between variables.
- Key constructs included perspective taking, empathic concern, self-efficacy, network density, cognitive trust, affective trust, MCI, and knowledge contribution.
Main Results:
- Perspective taking and self-efficacy were found to positively influence cognitive and affective trust, respectively.
- Network density was shown to contribute to both cognitive and affective trust.
- Both cognitive and affective trust significantly impacted membership continuance intention (MCI).
- Affective trust was identified as the sole significant predictor of members' knowledge contribution behaviors.
Conclusions:
- Trust, encompassing both cognitive and affective dimensions, is a critical determinant of user engagement and contribution in OHCs.
- Interpersonal factors like perspective taking and self-efficacy play a vital role in fostering trust within these online health environments.
- Future interventions in OHCs should focus on enhancing trust to improve user retention and knowledge sharing.
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