A Post a Day Keeps the Doctor Away: Sharing Personal Information on Self-Diagnosis Platforms

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bhat, Roopa, Crawford, Lord, Hong, Nicole
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bhat, Roopa
Crawford, Lord
Hong, Nicole
author_facet Bhat, Roopa
Crawford, Lord
Hong, Nicole
contents For many, it can be intimidating or even impossible to seek professional medical help if they have symptoms of an illness. As such, some people approach platforms like Reddit or Quora for a community-based conversation in an attempt to diagnose themselves. In this paper, we unearth what motivates people to share personal health information on these platforms. From an online survey and in-depth interviews, we present who this population of users are, and what, where, and why they are posting. Our evaluation finds that tech-savvy young adults are more likely to post on online platforms about potentially sensitive or highly specific topics for convenience, fast response, and a sense of community. Most importantly, we found that anonymity, distrust of physicians, and prior experience with platforms were key factors that affected behavior.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_10709
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Post a Day Keeps the Doctor Away: Sharing Personal Information on Self-Diagnosis Platforms
Bhat, Roopa
Crawford, Lord
Hong, Nicole
Human-Computer Interaction
H.5.2; H.3.5; H.1.2
For many, it can be intimidating or even impossible to seek professional medical help if they have symptoms of an illness. As such, some people approach platforms like Reddit or Quora for a community-based conversation in an attempt to diagnose themselves. In this paper, we unearth what motivates people to share personal health information on these platforms. From an online survey and in-depth interviews, we present who this population of users are, and what, where, and why they are posting. Our evaluation finds that tech-savvy young adults are more likely to post on online platforms about potentially sensitive or highly specific topics for convenience, fast response, and a sense of community. Most importantly, we found that anonymity, distrust of physicians, and prior experience with platforms were key factors that affected behavior.
title A Post a Day Keeps the Doctor Away: Sharing Personal Information on Self-Diagnosis Platforms
topic Human-Computer Interaction
H.5.2; H.3.5; H.1.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.10709