What is discussed about eldercare?. A netnography study on a Chinese online community for older adults
Published date | 10 April 2020 |
Pages | 239-255 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-10-2019-0225 |
Date | 10 April 2020 |
Author | Dongxiang Zhao,Qiping Zhang,Feicheng Ma |
What is discussed
about eldercare?
A netnography study on a Chinese online
community for older adults
Dongxiang Zhao
School of Management Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Qiping Zhang
Long Island University –CW Post Campus, Brookville, New York, USA, and
Feicheng Ma
Center for the Study of Information Resources, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purposeof this paper is to investigate eldercare issuesin China through exploring what was
discussedabout eldercare in a Chinese online community for olderadults (OCOA).
Design/methodology/approach –Netnography wasused to explore eldercare-related online discussion
in a Chinese OCOA –LaoYouBang. After a two-month-long online observation, 275 microblogs and 594
commentswere collected and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively.
Findings –The main findings includeas follows: the users involved in an online discussion about eldercare
were consist of four categories, namely, elderly user, non-elderly user, advertiser and community
administrator. Non-elderlyuser include the elderly’s caregivers and families, young and middle-aged people
concerning about eldercare?From 2012 to 2017, eldercare issues graduallybecame refined and differentiated
in China and elderly users’contribution proportion and activeness increasedyearly? According to the results
of thematic analysis, users’information needs for eldercare included opinion, news, practice, emotion,
knowledge and others? In China, some changes have taken place in the public’s conceptions of eldercare,
embodied in the changes in the public’s attention, attitudes and cognition? Changes in user structure and
communication patterns in OCOA have also been noted? OCOA plays an important role in eldercare
informationdissemination and social support exchangeand helps to meet the eldercare challenges.
Originality/value –This study explored an online community for older. This is the first netnography
study in the information field on ChineseOCOA. This paper provides new perspectives to explore eldercare
issues andOCOA in other regions and cultures and it also provides some suggestionsto improve OCOA.
Keywords Online communities for older adults, Netnography, Quantitative analysis,
Qualitative analysis, Population aging, Eldercare, China
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The world’s population is rapidlyaging. By 2050, one in six people in the world will be over
age 65 (16 per cent), up from one in 11 in 2019 (9 per cent). The numberof person of 80 years
of age or over is projected to triple, from 143 million in 2019 to 426 million in 2050.
Furthermore, theaging population is growing faster than all youngerage groups (UNDESA,
2019). Population aging is an immense and unprecedented challenge across the world, of
which China is no exception (ADB, 2014;Caixin, 2018). With its rate of aging population
continuously accelerating,China has become the country with the largest elder populationin
A netnography
study on a
Chinese
239
Received2 October 2019
Revised13 February 2020
25February 2020
Accepted29 February 2020
TheElectronic Library
Vol.38 No. 2, 2020
pp. 239-255
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-10-2019-0225
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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the world. In fact, China’s sub-population of over 60 has exceeded 249 million, now
accounting for 17.9 percent of the national population (NBS, 2019).
Because of the evolution of socioeconomic levels, population structure and family
relationships, the public’s perceptions of population aging and eldercare issues have
changed greatly. Moreover, there are obviously geographic and cultural background
differences in the support and care for older adults. For instance, in many Asian countries
influenced by Confucian culture, people seldom use the eldercare services provided by the
government and enterprisesbut instead prefer more traditional methods such as being cared
for by younger generationsof family members (Ko, 2006;Michailidou et al., 2015).
Population aging is currently regarded as one of the most significant social
transformations, which requires various stakeholders, including government, enterprises,
society and the public, to take measures to achieve successful aging, active aging and
healthy aging (Walker, 2016). It is worth notingthat online communities dedicated to older
adults are emerging, including various types, namely, internet forums, e-mail lists, chat
rooms, bulletin boards, newsletters, interactive websites, etc. These various online
communities provide older adults with a virtual public space for peer communication,
personal experience sharing and information and social support exchange (Furlong, 1989;
Pan, 2016;Wright, 1999). In this article, these online communities dedicated to older adults
are called online communitiesfor older adults (hereinafter abbreviated to OCOA). Beyond the
constraints of time, geography and even personal privacy, the members of OCOA actively
express and discuss numerous topicssuch as family, health, hobbies, news, retirement and
eldercare issues. Interestingly,online communication and interaction in OCOA conveniently
provide researcherswith natural research fields and abundant research data.
However, previous research on OCOA has mostly focussed on these types of
communities in North America or Europe,whereas other parts of the world are covered less
in the literature. Moreover,little attention is paid to the online discussions of eldercare issues
in OCOA. China has the largest elderly population in the world and OCOA is growing
rapidly in China. Nevertheless, little is known about Chinese OCOA and online discussions
of eldercare issues, especially in the non-Chinese speaking world. To close this gap, the
present study exploreda well-known OCOA in China and investigated itsonline discussions
of eldercare issues.Therefore, the following research questions were examined:
RQ1. What are the eldercare-relatedinformation needs of users of OCOA?
RQ2. What has happened to the public’s perception of eldercare in China from the
perspective of participantsin OCOA?
RQ3. What has happened to the user structure and communicationpatterns of OCOA in
China?
RQ4. What roles does OCOA play inthe aging society and eldercare services?
2. Related work
2.1 Online communities for older adults
Currently, various web applications are enteringthe lives of the elderly and more and more
elderly people are using online communities, especially OCOA. Aging and chronic
conditions such as hypertension and diabetes are both lasting and complex life issues that
require long-term attention and solutions. Similar to the situation of older adults, people
with chronic conditions are increasingly using an online health community (OHC) to
exchange health informationand social support (Chen et al., 2019;Kazmer et al.,2014).It was
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