Topics of questions and community interaction in social Q&A during the COVID-19 pandemic

Considering social distancing requirements and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread health mis/disinformation on social media, filling the pandemic-related information gap is critical.

This study explored COVID-19-related question topics, topic correlation, evolving trends, and community interactions by leveraging data from a health question-answering (Q&A) community (public and health professionals) over a 2-year period.

A total of 828 questions were collected and manually reviewed from a health Q&A and classified into 2492 codes. Question topic correlations, trends, and community interactions were generated using different statistical techniques.

Thirty-seven topics were identified, and strong topic correlations were observed between the cognitive layer and other layers. These topics changed as the pandemic developed. Community interaction analyses revealed topics that were popular but received comparatively fewer responses.

The findings could illuminate the dynamic changes in people's interests and concerns related to COVID-19 and their experiences of exchanging information in social Q&A communities.

This study examined the practical significance of understanding topics of interest during a pandemic. The findings can inform the design of social health Q&A platforms that could reduce the risks of misinformation and disinformation.