Understanding Asking and Responding Behaviors on an Online Health Question-and-Answer Platform: Improving Health Resource Acquisition for Patients with Diverse Disease Conditions

Abstract

Objectives: Our aim was to enhance patients′ access to health resources. We investigated the effect of patients′ inquiry behaviors on doctors′ responses with online health Q&A platforms. Methods: We obtained data from 6588 medical questions and 69,217 answers from a leading online health Q&A platform in China. We conducted ordinary least squares regression with robust standard errors and a series of robustness checks, including the Poisson model and negative binomial regression, as well as alternative measurement methods. Results: We found that longer questions can lead to a decrease in response numbers. However, they also can elicit longer responses from doctors. Additionally, a bounty can incentivize more doctors to engage in and provide longer responses. The results also reveal that a patients′ negative emotions can weaken the impact of question attributes on the response length. Furthermore, for high-severity questions compared to low-severity ones, all the main effects are weakened. Conclusions: When patients post longer questions, this increases response length and decreases answer numbers; providing more bounty attracts longer and more numerous answers. At the same time, patients with different disease conditions should expect different responses.