In Pursuit of Theoretical Ground in Behavior Change Support Systems: Analysis of Peer-to-Peer Communication in a Health-Related Online Community.
In Pursuit of Theoretical Ground in Behavior Change Support Systems: Analysis of Peer-to-Peer Communication in a Health-Related Online Community.
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DOI：
10.2196/jmir.4671
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发表时间：
2016-02-02
影响因子：
7.4
通讯作者：
Cohen T
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Myneni S;Cobb N;Cohen T
涉及健康相关在线社区的研究重点是检查网络结构，以了解行为变化背后的机制。对这些社区中交换的信息的内容分析仅限于“社会支持”的角度。然而，现有的行为改变理论表明，消息内容发挥着重要作用，反映了影响个人改变生活方式的努力的几个社会认知因素。了解这些因素对于识别和利用健康 2.0 时代的行为改变机制至关重要。这项工作的目标有两个：（1）利用数字通信数据来捕获通信的本质含义和影响期望行为改变的因素，以及（2）了解现有行为改变理论的适用性来描述在线平台中的点对点通信。在本文中，我们描述了基于扎根理论的 QuitNet（一个促进戒烟的在线社区）数字通信的定性分析。我们的研究使用了 2007 年 3 月 1 日至 4 月 30 日期间来自 1456 位用户的 16,492 条去识别化公共消息的数据库。我们使用扎根理论技术分析了 795 条消息，以确保主题饱和。这项分析能够识别 QuitNet 成员交换的消息中包含的关键概念，使我们能够了解个人在群体环境中戒烟努力背后的复杂社会行为。我们进一步确定了所确定的主题与现有行为改变理论（例如健康信念模型）和理论上相关的行为改变分类技术的理论构建的相关性。我们确定了 43 个不同的概念，然后根据对 795 条消息的分析将其分为 12 个主题。概念的例子包括“瞌睡”、“承诺”、“补丁”、“配偶”和“失误”。主题的例子包括“传统”、“社会支持”、“障碍”、“旧病复发”和“渴望”。结果表明，由成员生成的策略（例如“虚拟篝火”和“承诺”）组成的主题与现有行为改变理论中最多的理论构建相关。此外，结果表明，与大多数现有的理论驱动的干预措施不同，成员生成的沟通内容支持来自多个行为改变模型的社会认知结构。随着移动电话和无处不在的互联网连接的出现，在线社交网络数据反映了健康消费者实时体验的人类健康行为的复杂性。这项研究为定性调查提供了方法论见解，这些调查研究了在线社区用户之间交换的消息中普遍存在的各种行为结构。从理论上讲，本研究确立了现有行为改变理论在类似 QuitNet 的在线健康社区中的表现。实际上，它为实时、数据驱动的社会行为干预奠定了基础，通过让我们了解用户的紧急需求来维持期望的行为改变，促进健康的生活方式改变。
Research studies involving health-related online communities have focused on examining network structure to understand mechanisms underlying behavior change. Content analysis of the messages exchanged in these communities has been limited to the “social support” perspective. However, existing behavior change theories suggest that message content plays a prominent role reflecting several sociocognitive factors that affect an individual’s efforts to make a lifestyle change. An understanding of these factors is imperative to identify and harness the mechanisms of behavior change in the Health 2.0 era. The objective of this work is two-fold: (1) to harness digital communication data to capture essential meaning of communication and factors affecting a desired behavior change, and (2) to understand the applicability of existing behavior change theories to characterize peer-to-peer communication in online platforms. In this paper, we describe grounded theory–based qualitative analysis of digital communication in QuitNet, an online community promoting smoking cessation. A database of 16,492 de-identified public messages from 1456 users from March 1-April 30, 2007, was used in our study. We analyzed 795 messages using grounded theory techniques to ensure thematic saturation. This analysis enabled identification of key concepts contained in the messages exchanged by QuitNet members, allowing us to understand the sociobehavioral intricacies underlying an individual’s efforts to cease smoking in a group setting. We further ascertained the relevance of the identified themes to theoretical constructs in existing behavior change theories (eg, Health Belief Model) and theoretically linked techniques of behavior change taxonomy. We identified 43 different concepts, which were then grouped under 12 themes based on analysis of 795 messages. Examples of concepts include “sleepiness,” “pledge,” “patch,” “spouse,” and “slip.” Examples of themes include “traditions,” “social support,” “obstacles,” “relapse,” and “cravings.” Results indicate that themes consisting of member-generated strategies such as “virtual bonfires” and “pledges” were related to the highest number of theoretical constructs from the existing behavior change theories. In addition, results indicate that the member-generated communication content supports sociocognitive constructs from more than one behavior change model, unlike the majority of the existing theory-driven interventions. With the onset of mobile phones and ubiquitous Internet connectivity, online social network data reflect the intricacies of human health behavior as experienced by health consumers in real time. This study offers methodological insights for qualitative investigations that examine the various kinds of behavioral constructs prevalent in the messages exchanged among users of online communities. Theoretically, this study establishes the manifestation of existing behavior change theories in QuitNet-like online health communities. Pragmatically, it sets the stage for real-time, data-driven sociobehavioral interventions promoting healthy lifestyle modifications by allowing us to understand the emergent user needs to sustain a desired behavior change.