Please help our research on the use of online health forums!

Posted , 1 user is following.

Hi everyone,

My name is Hanmei. I am a researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia and currently working on a project investigating the use of online health forums. The aim of the study is to verify whether medical conditions can affect the use of online health forums. Drawn from the literature and findings from our previous research, we hypothesise that patients with minor and non-chronic illnesses are more likely to engage in an information-centred strategy while patients with severe and chronic illnesses are more likely to engage in a people-centred strategy. If the hypothesis is supported, the finding from this study can potentially advise the management of online health forums to strategically direct their resource to render more targeting service, based on different types of medical conditions. That is why we need people from a wide range of medical background.

We are very interested in learning about your opinions and experience. We would like to invite voluntary participants:

- who are affected by any medical conditions directly or indirectly,

- have visited patient.info forum in the past 7 days,

to complete a 30-minute online survey. Participants will be asked about their perception of the message and the person that they have the best memory of during their most recent visit to the forum. All participants who complete the survey will have a chance to win one out of four $50 gift cards of their choice (as long as I can purchase it online), as our way to say thank you.

This study has been approved by the University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee (#1238574). For more information, please visit people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/hanmeif/recruitingAd.html. To access the survey, please visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/ohforum.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at h.fan@student.unimelb.edu.au.

If you know someone who fit into the criteria and would like to participate, please forward the message or the links above.

You can indicate whether you would like to receive a copy of the findings and you will receive an email from us approximately in March or April next year.

Thank you very much for your time and support!

This message has been approved by the Administration of patient.info forum.

Warm regards,

Hanmei Fan

PhD Candidate

Department of Computer and Information Systems

University of Melbourne

people.eng.unimelb.edu.au/hanmeif/

1 like, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • Posted

    Thank everyone who has taken time to read the recruiting invitation and even completed the survey. At this moment, we still need a couple of participants and if you are interested in the study, please take a bit time to help us! Most of participants finished the survey in 15 minutes and 30 minutes is estimated to be the max..

    If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me and Ill be happy to answer. Thanks again for your time and generous support!

    Hanmei

  • Posted

    Hi everyone,

    Thank everyone who have read and participated in the study. We're at the last stage of data collection and the survey will be closed on Nov. 30. If you just saw the invitation and are interested in the research, you still have time to partake. For further questions, pleaseemail me.

    I truly appreciate everyone's support and help. Once the study is done, I'll email the findings to those who request it. Thank you very much for your generous support!

    Hanmei

  • Posted

    Hi everyone,

    I came back to update the outcome of the research I conducted last November. I finally finished the study and a study summary can be downloaded at hanmeifan.com/index.php?page=research_studies. If you have any feedback or comment, please feel free to contact me or leave your thought at the commenting area on the website. If you are interested in my research, please stay tune and check out my future studies later. Thank you very much for your generous support!

    p.s. For participants who requested a copy of the result, I will email a copy to you very shortly.

    Hanmei

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