title: Building trusting relationships in online health communities.
abstract: This study investigates consumers' use of online health communities (OHCs) for healthcare from a relationship building perspective based on the commitment-trust theory of relationships. The study proposes that perspective taking, empathic concern, self-efficacy, and network density affect the development of both cognitive and affective trust, which together determine OHC members' membership continuance intention (MCI) and knowledge contribution. Data collected from eight existing OHCs (N=255) were utilized to test the hypothesized model. Results show that perspective taking and self-efficacy can increase cognitive trust and affective trust, respectively. Network density contributes to cognitive and affective trust. Both cognitive trust and affective trust influence MCI, while only affective trust impacts members' knowledge contribution behaviors.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Marketing and Tourism Management, Wuhan University , Wuhan, Hubei, China .
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Sejin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Widdows
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004645:Empathy; D063005:Health Information Systems; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D033182:Intention; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D020377:Self Efficacy; D061108:Social Media; D012944:Social Support; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult