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Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes: The Effects of Mismatches between Social Support and Health Outcomes in an Online Weight Loss Community

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  • Lu (Lucy) Yan

Abstract

The United States has the highest rate of obesity in the world. To help address this problem, social support is gaining credibility as a powerful tool to facilitate weight loss because it can affect people's behavior. Although social support has long been recognized for its effectiveness in promoting health, we argue, in this study, that social support may not always lead to good outcomes. Specifically, we differentiate between support providers and support seekers, and examine whether providing and receiving support affect individuals’ weight†loss outcomes differently. By analyzing a group of individuals participating in an online weight†loss community, we show that providing and receiving support does affect weight†loss outcomes in different ways. First, the influences are dynamic. Second, while providing support is positively associated with weight†loss progress, receiving support could hinder weight†loss outcome for a person with high self†efficacy in weight†loss progress. Third, by categorizing social support into different types, we find evidence suggesting that the match between needed and received social support type also influences individuals’ performance in the weight†loss process. Furthermore, mismatches of social support could negatively affect weight†loss outcomes. These findings have implications for maximizing the usefulness of social support for participants in the online environment as well as for clinicians who refer individuals to online weight†loss communities and for those who design them.

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  • Lu (Lucy) Yan, 2018. "Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes: The Effects of Mismatches between Social Support and Health Outcomes in an Online Weight Loss Community," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 27(1), pages 9-27, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popmgt:v:27:y:2018:i:1:p:9-27
    DOI: 10.1111/poms.12793
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    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Hualong & Li, Dan, 2021. "Health management gamification: Understanding the effects of goal difficulty, achievement incentives, and social networks on performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Tongxin Zhou & Lu (Lucy) Yan & Yingfei Wang & Yong Tan, 2022. "Turn Your Online Weight Management from Zero to Hero: A Multidimensional, Continuous-Time Evaluation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3507-3527, May.
    3. Behnaz Bojd & Xiaolong Song & Yong Tan & Xiangbin Yan, 2022. "Gamified Challenges in Online Weight-Loss Communities," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 718-736, June.
    4. Haibing Gao & Huazhong Zhao & Yinliang (Ricky) Tan & Ya (Lisa) Lin & Lai Wei, 2020. "Social Promotion: A Creative Promotional Framework on Consumers’ Social Network Value," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(12), pages 2661-2678, December.
    5. Liu, Xiaoxiao & Ben Liu, Qianqian, 2024. "Superior medical resources or geographic proximity? The joint effects of regional medical resource disparity, geographic distance, and cultural differences on online medical consultation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    6. Hyeokkoo Eric Kwon & Sanjeev Dewan & Wonseok Oh & Taekyung Kim, 2023. "Self-Regulation and External Influence: The Relative Efficacy of Mobile Apps and Offline Channels for Personal Weight Management," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 50-66, March.
    7. Yue Jin & Yong Tan & Jinghua Huang, 2022. "Managing contributor performance in knowledge‐sharing communities: A dynamic perspective," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(11), pages 3945-3962, November.
    8. Xi Wang & Zhiya Zuo & Xing Tong & Yushan Zhu, 2024. "Talk more about yourself: a data-driven extended theory of reasoned action for online health communities," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 233-246, September.
    9. Qili Wang & Liangfei Qiu & Wei Xu, 2024. "Informal Payments and Doctor Engagement in an Online Health Community: An Empirical Investigation Using Generalized Synthetic Control," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 706-726, June.
    10. Siqing Shan & Qi Yan & Yigang Wei, 2020. "Infectious or Recovered? Optimizing the Infectious Disease Detection Process for Epidemic Control and Prevention Based on Social Media," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-25, September.
    11. Lu (Lucy) Yan, 2020. "The Kindness of Commenters: An Empirical Study of the Effectiveness of Perceived and Received Support for Weight‐Loss Outcomes," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(6), pages 1448-1466, June.
    12. Tongxin Zhou & Yingfei Wang & Lu (Lucy) Yan & Yong Tan, 2023. "Spoiled for Choice? Personalized Recommendation for Healthcare Decisions: A Multiarmed Bandit Approach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 1493-1512, December.
    13. Xianghua Lu & Tian Lu & Chong (Alex) Wang & Ruofan Wu, 2021. "Can Social Notifications Help to Mitigate Payment Delinquency in Online Peer‐to‐Peer Lending?," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(8), pages 2564-2585, August.

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