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Study on the evolution of information sharing strategy for users of online patient community

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Abstract

Technological advances are driving the growth of online health communities. However, there are some problems such as low user participation and insignificant social benefits in online health communities. This paper discusses the evolution law of information sharing behavior of members of online health community to study the influence of different behaviors on health information sharing results and explore the ways to improve the level of community information sharing. Based on BA scale-free network (Albert-László Barabás and Réka Albert scale-free network), this paper established an information sharing behavior model for members of online health community with the evolutionary game theory method, and discussed the influence of different game parameters and initial conditions on the evolution results of information sharing behavior of community patients with the method of numerical experiment. It is found that the key to improve the level of community information sharing is to improve the benefit of patients’ information sharing, the proportion of patients sharing information at the initial moment, and the degree of network nodes, and reduce the sharing cost. Community managers should improve the information conversion ability and information absorption ability of community patients through offline activities, professional guidance, and other forms. At the same time, it can reduce the difficulty and risk of information sharing and strengthen the connection among members, thus comprehensively enhancing the value of the community.

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Abbreviations

BA scale-free network:

Albert-László Barabás and Réka Albert scale-free network

ICR:

initial collaborator ratio

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Funding

This study was partially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (numbers 71971123 and 71571105).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Economics and Management, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China

    Panpan Zhu

  2. College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Jiang Shen

  3. School of Business, NanKai University, Tianjin, China

    Man Xu

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  1. Panpan Zhu
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  2. Jiang Shen
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  3. Man Xu
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Correspondence to Panpan Zhu.

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Zhu, P., Shen, J. & Xu, M. Study on the evolution of information sharing strategy for users of online patient community. Pers Ubiquit Comput 27, 689–695 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01464-6

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