Exploring the impact of medical lexicon use and social capital in online health communities

Joseph A. Manga, Emmanuel W. Ayaburi and Francis K. Andoh-Baidoo

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 16, 4000-4016

Abstract: In this study, we investigate the role of medical lexicon of disclosed information and social capital on user-supportive behaviours in online health communities (OHC). We leverage text analytics to extract features to measure variables from patient.info to theorize a social capital-moderated model of user-supportive behaviours. Our results reveal that while cognitive capital (CC) has a negative relationship, structural capital (SC) has a positive relationship with user interaction (UI) and support helpfulness (SH). While the positive relationship between relational capital (RC) and UI is supported, that of RC and SH is not supported. Medical lexical density (MLD) is positively related to UI but the negative relationship with SH is not supported. Additionally, the negative moderation of MLD on relationships between SC and both UI and SH were supported. Furthermore, the positive moderation of MLD on the relationships between RC and both UI and SH are supported. However, while the negative moderation of MLD on the relationship between CC and SH is supported, that between CC and UI is not supported. The findings have implications for user health education and public health intervention aimed at promoting social support for medical information seeking.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2025.2460598

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