Factors Influencing the Answerability and Popularity of a Health-Related Post in the Question-and-Answer Community: Infodemiology Study of Metafilter

BACKGROUND: The web-based health question-and-answer (Q&A) community has become the primary and handy way for people to access health information and knowledge directly. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study is to investigate how content-related, context-related, and user-related variables influence the answerability and popularity of health-related posts based on a user-dynamic, social network, and topic-dynamic semantic network, respectively. METHODS: Full-scale data on health consultations were acquired from the Metafilter Q&A community. These variables were designed in terms of context, content, and contributors. Negative binomial regression models were used to examine the influence of these variables on the favorite and comment counts of a health-related post. RESULTS: A total of 18,099 post records were collected from a well-known Q&A community. The findings of this study include the following. Content-related variables have a strong impact on both the answerability and popularity of posts. Notably, sentiment values were positively related to favorite counts and negatively associated with comment counts. User-related variables significantly affected the answerability and popularity of posts. Specifically, participation intensity was positively related to comment count and negatively associated with favorite count. Sociability breadth only had a significant impact on comment count. Context-related variables have a more substantial influence on the popularity of posts than on their answerability. The topic diversity variable exhibits an inverse correlation with the comment count while manifesting a positive correlation with the favorite count. Nevertheless, topic intensity has a significant effect only on favorite count. CONCLUSIONS: The research results not only reveal the factors influencing the answerability and popularity of health-related posts, which can help them obtain high-quality answers more efficiently, but also provide a theoretical basis for platform operators to enhance user engagement within health Q&A communities.