Pregnancy-Related Information Seeking in Online Health Communities: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Pregnancy often imposes risks on women's health. Consumers are increasingly turning to online resources (e.g., online health communities) to look for pregnancy-related information for better care management. To inform design opportunities for online support interventions, it is critical to thoroughly understand consumers' information needs throughout the entire course of pregnancy including three main stages: pre-pregnancy, during-pregnancy, and postpartum. In this study, we present a content analysis of pregnancy-related question posts on Yahoo! Answers to examine how they formulated their inquiries, and the types of replies that information seekers received. This analysis revealed 14 main types of information needs, most of which were "stage-based". We also found that peers from online health communities provided a variety of support, including affirmation of pregnancy, opinions or suggestions, health information, personal experience, and reference to health providers' service. Insights derived from the findings are drawn to discuss design opportunities for tailoring informatics interventions to support consumers' information needs at different pregnancy stages.