Visual analysis of obesity‐related query terms on HealthLink
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520910944382 |
| Pages | 43-57 |
| Published date | 20 February 2009 |
| Date | 20 February 2009 |
| Author | Jin Zhang,Dietmar Wolfram |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Visual analysis of obesity-related
query terms on HealthLink
Jin Zhang and Dietmar Wolfram
School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate obesity-related queries from a public health
portal (HealthLink) transaction log.
Design/methodology/approach – Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was applied to each of five
obesity-related focus keywords and their co-occurring terms in submitted queries. After the
transaction log data were collected and cleaned, and query terms were extracted and parsed,
relationships between a focus keyword and its co-occurring terms were established. Clustering
relationships between focus keywords and their co-occurring terms were identified and analysed in the
MDS visual context.
Findings – The MDS analysis produced satisfactory outcomes for all five focus keywords. The term
“placements”, in the visual configurations revealed strong grouping tendencies of three to five clusters
for each focus keyword.
Originality/value – The findings of this study provide insights into health consumers’
internet-based information-seeking behaviour on obesity-related topics. These findings could be
used to enhance online search system design and health-related thesaurus construction.
Keywords Obesity, Information systems, Healthservices, United States of America,
Information searches, Online catalogues
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Health informatics is an emerging field. Of growing interest is the information
behaviour of health information consumers. It is widely recognised that the search
behaviours of medical professionals like doctors and physicians are quite different
from those of health consumers in terms of search vocabulary (Ratzan and Parker,
2000; Zeng and Tse, 2006). A better understanding of health consumer search
behaviours would benefit both medical professionals (by allowing them to
communicate better with patients) and health consumers (by enabling them to
express their health needs more effectively).
An example of a popular search topic where a better understanding of health
consumer behaviour is needed is the area of obesity. Obesity is an epidemic in not only
North America but also in other parts of the world. It has become a major health
concern that can lead to serious health problems such as cardiovascular disease,
diabetes mellitus type 2, sleep apnoea and osteoarthritis (Haslam and James, 2005).
Obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually in the USA (Mokdad
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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The research was sponsored in part by a Research Growth Initiative grant from the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The authors would like to thank the Medical College of Wisconsin for
providing access to the HealthLink transaction log data.
Visual analysis
of query terms
43
Refereed article received
26 April 2008
Approved for publication
4 July 2008
Online Information Review
Vol. 33 No. 1, 2009
pp. 43-57
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520910944382
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