![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Background: An online interactive information portal is a type of eHealth application in which a group of people with a common interest use social software to gather information and to interact by asking questions and provide information. The present study uses an interactive information portal to explore communication and information needs regarding early diagnosis or disease interception in the area of breast cancer.
Method: Eight online interactive information portals were developed for women belonging to two age groups, one group younger than age 45 and one group age 45 or older (in total 16 communities). In each portal, the participants had to perform four activities: (1) Read a message, combining either a positive or negative message framing with emotional or rational message components and the message being endorsed either by an experience expert (an (ex)-patient) or a gynecologist (hence, the eight portals per age group); (2) Select additional information, the participants were asked to choose more information by selecting one out of eight different topics; (3) Raise a question, women were asked to raise one or more questions related to breast cancer (free text). They could either address the question to an experience expert, a general practitioner or a gynecologist; (4) Share your opinion, the participant was asked to share her opinion, either by adding an opinion under an existing discussion thread or initiating a new discussion topic, in free text.
Results: Most participants prefer a positive, emotional message endorsed by a gynecologist. There is a substantial difference between the questions raised by younger and older women, and they also ask different questions to general practitioners, gynecologists or experience experts. Half the questions were asked to a gynecologist, followed by an experience expert, while few women address their questions to a general practitioner. Rational messages trigger more discussion in the online community than emotional ones. Especially in older women, emotional messages trigger more negative sentiments.
Conclusions: The results provide insights into women's information preferences and responses to information in an online interactive portal for breast cancer prevention information. The results can inform the medical profession and public policy organizations to more efficiently engage women in an early diagnosis and breast cancer screening context.
Ethical approval
This study was approved by the University of Antwerp and Ghent University under the exempt category.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Martine Lewi worked as a consultant with IBM Global Business Services. She is currently the director of health information sciences at the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. She recently obtained her Ph.D. degree at the university of Antwerp (Belgium) on the drivers for awareness, engagement and participation of early diagnosis messages for secondary prevention of breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Patrick De Pelsmacker is full professor of marketing at the Faculty of Applied Economics of the University of Antwerp and a part-time professor of marketing at Ghent University (Belgium). His research focuses on the effectiveness of communication, online behavior, ethical consumption and social marketing.
Veroline Cauberghe is associate professor of communication management at the Center for Pursuasive Communication, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, of Ghent University. Her research focuses upon advertising effectiveness, social marketing, advertising to minors, crisis communication and the persuasive impact of communication strategies.