Analysis on childhood fever health information seeking behaviors in online health community using a mixed-methods approach

Objective The primary aim of this study is to analyze health information seeking behaviors of users related to child fever within online health communities. The findings will serve as a foundation for the development of targeted interventions and resources for addressing the specific information needs related to child fever. Ultimately, this will enhance parental capabilities in managing fever in children and for improving the quality of communication between healthcare professionals and parents dealing with feverish children. Methods This study employed data crawling to gather Q&A data on childhood fever from online health communities, specifically “haodf.com” between March 15, 2022, and March 15, 2023. A total of 47,781 texts were analyzed using a mixed research approach that combines qualitative text topic analysis with BERTopic algorithm. Results The health information needs regarding children's fever can be categorized into 6 primary topics and 17 secondary topics. Among them, parents’ demand for medication consultation and medical guidance (Topic A) was the highest at 45.40%, followed by information concerning the management of fever symptoms and body temperature in children (Topic B) at 30.35%. 13.24% of the data focused on examination recommendations and interpretation of results (Topic C). Conclusions This study proposes a mixed thematic analysis method combining qualitative text thematic analysis and the BERTopic topic model, which reveals parents’ information-seeking behaviors about children with fever. It emphasizes the challenges faced by parents in assessing their children's condition and highlights the necessity of continuous health information support and evidence-based medical knowledge. This can promote the improvement of medical services, optimize doctor–patient communication, strengthen patient information support, and optimize the content of online health communities.