title: When and why do people post questions about health and illness on Web 2.0-based Q&A sites in Japan.
abstract: Web2.0-based Q&A sites such as Yahoo! Answers and OKWave are the fastest-growing sites in Japan. Such sites exploit user-generated content and information-sharing methods and have established point systems and user ratings to reward participation. We analyzed the questions and answers concerning health and illness posted on these sites. We found that the people who posted questions desired to obtain information related to their health problems from various sources, and to seek validation of this information not only by experts but also by people who have undergone similar experiences.
authors: St. Luke's college of Nursing, Tokyo, Japan. nakayama@slcn.ac.jp
authors: Kazuhiro
authors: K
authors: Nakayama
authors: Arisa
authors: A
authors: Nishio
authors: Yukari
authors: Y
authors: Yokoyama
authors: Yoko
authors: Y
authors: Setoyama
authors: Taisuke
authors: T
authors: Togari
authors: Yuki
authors: Y
authors: Yonekura
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007564:Japan; D010353:Patient Education as Topic