DisVis: Visualizing Discussion Threads in Online Health Communities

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Information Science

Background:

• Online health communities (OHCs) are vital sources of health information and support.
• The large volume of user-generated content in OHCs presents challenges for information access.
• Efficiently navigating and extracting relevant information from OHC discussions is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and evaluate a discussion visualization tool (DisVis) for OHCs.
• To assess the impact of DisVis on users' ability to overview, browse, and find information.
• To understand user perceptions and identify areas for improvement in visualizing OHC content.

Main Methods:

• Development of the DisVis tool with features for overviewing, browsing, and information retrieval.
• A between-subjects study comparing DisVis users with a control group.
• Quantitative analysis of accuracy and time to answer, supplemented by qualitative interviews.

Main Results:

• DisVis use led to a statistically significant 68% increase in answer accuracy (p=0.023).
• A trend towards reduced answer time (38%) was observed, though not statistically significant (p=0.082).
• Qualitative feedback indicated user enthusiasm for improved browsing and search functionalities.

Conclusions:

• DisVis effectively enhances information access and accuracy in online health communities.
• Visualization tools can address challenges posed by large volumes of user-generated health content.
• Further development of DisVis and similar tools holds promise for improving user engagement and information retrieval in OHCs.