D3 Article in a professional conference publication
Use of Online Health Communities in Smoking Cessation: a Social Support Perspective
Authors: Chenglong Li, Hongxiu Li, Reima Suomi
Editors: Dongming Xu, James Jiang, Hee-Woong Kim
Conference name: Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems
Publishing place: Xi'an, China
Publication year: 2019
Book title : Proceedings of the 2019 Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS)
Web address : https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2019/146/
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/44856401
Online health communities could be effective interventions for smoking
cessation. This study aims to explore the reason why smokers turn to
online health communities to support their smoking cessation from the
social support perspective. We conducted a qualitative study by
interviewing seven users of an online smoking cessation community in
Finland. Our findings uncover that emotional support, informational
support, and companionship are strong motivators for smokers to use
smoking cessation online communities. Further, informational support and
companionship are found to have different importance for people at
different stages of smoking cessation. The role of companionship also
varies between posters and lurkers of smoking cessation online
community. The findings in this research provide practical guidelines to
smoking cessation online health communities on how to understand
smokers’ needs and retain them to use smoking cessation online health
communities from the social support perspective, aiming to support their
smoking cessation.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
