Abstract
In healthcare social media, users connect with patients and professionals without time and space boundaries to seek and share healthcare-related information (Denecke and Stewart 2011). A classic example of a Medicine 2.0 application is a healthcare Social Question Answering (SQA) service. Healthcare SQA services are redefining healthcare delivery and supporting patient empowerment. Healthcare SQA services allow users to seek information, communicate with others on similar problems, share health guidance, and compare treatment and medication strategies (Blooma and Wickramasinghe 2014). Examples of healthcare SQA services are MedHelp, BabyHub, and Drugs.com. The growing activities in online healthcare communities, asking questions and sharing answers, play an important role in users’ health information inquiries (Zhang and Zhao 2013). Individual behaviors, in particular health-related behaviors such as physical activity, diet, sleep, smoking, and alcohol consumption, as well as adherence to medical treatments and help-seeking behavior (Hyyppä 2010), appear to be significant in SQA services.