When engagement meets departure: how social capital, social engagement and social support impact churn within online health communities

Purpose Online health communities can be both supportive and vulnerable and highly rely on stable engagement from core members. Understanding the factors affecting core member churn is vital. This study examines a hair-loss-related online health community, taking a meso-level community approach. It investigates how users’ potential social capital, proactive social engagement and received social support in the community influence their churn. Design/methodology/approach This study collected the complete dataset spanning 13 years from a hair-loss-related online health community in mainland China. It identified 4,270 core users with over ten posted messages each, along with their associated text. Social network analysis and survival analysis were then used to calculate user node centrality and create a hazard model for user churn. Findings The findings indicate that increased social capital and social support can help prevent churn. However, higher social engagement alone does not directly reduce users’ likelihood to withdraw. Instead, users are more likely to stay in the community when highly engaged if they also receive substantial social support. Social support emerges as a critical factor in this mechanism. Originality/value This study innovatively adopts a meso-level community perspective, investigating user churn within an online health community for individuals with a self-limiting condition – hair loss. The research probes the interactive effects of user engagement and social support on churn within the online health community. Advice on sustaining member participation is given based on the findings as well as Chinese culture.