Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service quality

Introduction With the enhancement of people's health awareness and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in recent years, people's demand for online health information continues to expand, and online health communities (OHCs) have developed rapidly. However, the service quality of OHCs is...

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Main Authors: Yang Hua, Wang Shujuan, Wang Fucheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2023-10-01
Series:Digital Health
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231207201
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author Yang Hua
Wang Shujuan
Wang Fucheng
author_facet Yang Hua
Wang Shujuan
Wang Fucheng
author_sort Yang Hua
collection DOAJ
description Introduction With the enhancement of people's health awareness and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in recent years, people's demand for online health information continues to expand, and online health communities (OHCs) have developed rapidly. However, the service quality of OHCs is uneven, and problems such as content quality, privacy disclosure are increasingly prominent. It's of great significance to establish normalized OHC service quality evaluation standards and develop effective evaluation tools and methods for the improvement of OHC service quality. Material and Methods Based on the grounded theory, the raw materials obtained from semi-structured interviews were coded in three stages to construct a service quality evaluation system for OHC. Through empirical analysis, the rationality and effectiveness of the evaluation system were verified. Then six representative Chinese OHCs were selected and their service quality was evaluated by the entropy weight TOPSIS method. Results The service quality evaluation system of OHC was constructed which includes 4 first-level indicators and 16 second-level indicators. The weights of the first-level indicators from large to small are content quality, emotional experience quality, interaction quality and function quality. Among the second-level indicator weights, the top three are perceived cost reasonableness, content professionalism and effectiveness of interactive content. Conclusions The indicator system is reasonable and effective and the evaluation method has strong applicability and operability. This study will provide theoretical guidance for community platform operators and relevant departments to design effective evaluation mechanism of OHC service quality, offering a reference for decisions and policymakers.
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spelling doaj.art-0d8dfdcf3f3b4d3fbb2c50da1a0457fc2023-10-13T02:03:53ZengSAGE PublishingDigital Health2055-20762023-10-01910.1177/20552076231207201Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service qualityYang HuaWang ShujuanWang FuchengIntroduction With the enhancement of people's health awareness and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in recent years, people's demand for online health information continues to expand, and online health communities (OHCs) have developed rapidly. However, the service quality of OHCs is uneven, and problems such as content quality, privacy disclosure are increasingly prominent. It's of great significance to establish normalized OHC service quality evaluation standards and develop effective evaluation tools and methods for the improvement of OHC service quality. Material and Methods Based on the grounded theory, the raw materials obtained from semi-structured interviews were coded in three stages to construct a service quality evaluation system for OHC. Through empirical analysis, the rationality and effectiveness of the evaluation system were verified. Then six representative Chinese OHCs were selected and their service quality was evaluated by the entropy weight TOPSIS method. Results The service quality evaluation system of OHC was constructed which includes 4 first-level indicators and 16 second-level indicators. The weights of the first-level indicators from large to small are content quality, emotional experience quality, interaction quality and function quality. Among the second-level indicator weights, the top three are perceived cost reasonableness, content professionalism and effectiveness of interactive content. Conclusions The indicator system is reasonable and effective and the evaluation method has strong applicability and operability. This study will provide theoretical guidance for community platform operators and relevant departments to design effective evaluation mechanism of OHC service quality, offering a reference for decisions and policymakers.https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231207201
spellingShingle Yang Hua
Wang Shujuan
Wang Fucheng
Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service quality
Digital Health
title Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service quality
title_full Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service quality
title_fullStr Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service quality
title_full_unstemmed Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service quality
title_short Online health community—An empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight TOPSIS method to evaluate the service quality
title_sort online health community an empirical analysis based on grounded theory and entropy weight topsis method to evaluate the service quality
url https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231207201
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AT wangfucheng onlinehealthcommunityanempiricalanalysisbasedongroundedtheoryandentropyweighttopsismethodtoevaluatetheservicequality