Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate how community attachment to an OHC reduces the OHC users' emotional distress and therefore improves their emotional well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey study was conducted in one of the largest online health communities (OHC) for people with diabetes.

Findings

OHC participants are likely to experience reduced emotional distress when they have developed an attachment to the community. This attachment is, in turn, positively associated with the normative expectations of reciprocity and the affective feeling of gratitude. However, some commonly used behavioral measures of community participation, such as visit frequency and membership tenure, have little to do with either community attachment or reduced emotional distress.

Research limitations/implications

The research highlights the pivotal role of community attachment in appraising the much-debated benefits of OHCs. However, the cross-sectional survey study has its limitations in terms of establishing causality.

Practical implications

OHC managers need to look beyond some of the commonly used metrics, such as monthly visits and number of new postings, and focus on fostering a sense of attachment among existing users in order to fulfill the OHC's potential of emotional support. Our study implies that design features facilitating reciprocation and gratitude expression among users can lead to a strong emotional bond.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies on the antecedents of community attachment and the relationship between community attachment and emotional distress in the context of OHC.

中文翻译：

---

社区依恋和情绪健康：糖尿病患者在线社区的实证研究

目的

本研究的目的是调查社区对 OHC 的依恋如何减少 OHC 用户的情绪困扰，从而改善他们的情绪健康。

设计/方法论/方法

在最大的在线健康社区 (OHC) 之一针对糖尿病患者进行了一项调查研究。

发现

当 OHC 参与者对社区产生依恋时，他们可能会减少情绪困扰。反过来，这种依恋与对互惠的规范期望和感激的情感呈正相关。然而，一些常用的社区参与行为指标，如访问频率和会员任期，与社区依恋或减少情绪困扰几乎没有关系。

研究限制/影响

该研究强调了社区依恋在评估备受争议的 OHC 益处方面的关键作用。然而，横断面调查研究在建立因果关系方面有其局限性。

实际影响

OHC 经理需要超越一些常用指标，例如每月访问量和新帖子的数量，并专注于培养现有用户之间的依恋感，以实现 OHC 的情感支持潜力。我们的研究表明，促进用户之间的互惠和感激表达的设计特征可以导致强烈的情感纽带。

创意/价值

这是关于社区依恋的前因以及 OHC 背景下社区依恋与情绪困扰之间关系的首批研究之一。