A Comparative Study of Online Depression Communities in China.

Publisher: MDPI Country of Publication: Switzerland NLM ID: 101238455 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1660-4601 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 16604601 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Environ Res Public Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Basel : MDPI, c2004-

Depression*/epidemiology ; Internet* ; Self-Help Groups* ; Social Support* ; Text Messaging*; China/epidemiology ; Emotions ; Humans

Online communities have become a tool for researchers to understand and help individuals with depression. According to their operation mode in terms of management, communities can be divided into management depression communities (MDCs) and lacking-management depression communities (LDCs). This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and impact of LDCs in comparison with MDCs. All postings from the previous year were collected from the LDC and MDC. Keywords were extracted and coded to identify the themes, and a text classifier was built to identify the type of emotions and social support expressed in the postings. Community members were then clustered to explore their different participation patterns. We found that in the LDC, the expression of negative emotions was the most popular theme, there was a lack of information about the treatment of depression and a lack of social support providers, the level of engagement of providers was low, and support seekers did not receive attention. These results reveal the need for community management and can be used to develop more effective measures to support members of online depression communities.

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Keywords: depression; negative emotion; online depression communities; participation patterns; social support

Date Created: 20200717 Date Completed: 20201130 Latest Revision: 20201130

20240628

PMC7400076

10.3390/ijerph17145023

32668652