The Impact of Data Vulnerability in Online Health Communities: An Institutional Assurance Perspective

In the last few years, online health communities (OHCs) have experienced rapid development due to advances in technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the sensitive nature of medical information has also raised concerns from users about their privacy and reduced their intention to use OHCs. Considering the critical role of data privacy, this study explored the effect of data vulnerability on OHC users. Using online survey data collected from 438 OHC users in China, we found that data vulnerability significantly reduced psychological comfort, while the latter enhanced continuance intention. We also found that psychological comfort negatively mediated the impact of data vulnerability on continuance intention. Institutional assurance approaches, namely privacy policy, privacy protection technology, industry self-regulation, and government legislation, were also found to mitigate the negative impact of data vulnerability on psychological comfort. This study not only contributes to the data privacy, psychological comfort, and institutional assurance literature but also offers suggestions for OHC stakeholders.