An Analysis of Question Types and Information Resources from Social Q&A Website to Explore Information Needs of Family Caregivers of the Elderly with Dementia

• Main Authors: Pei-Wen Chen, 陳珮雯
• Other Authors: Shan-Ju Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/79561594923531739765

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 圖書資訊學研究所 === 101 === The aim of this study is to employ the concept of problematic situation to explore the information needs of family caregivers of the elderly with Dementia. Based on the study outcomes, libraries and health information organizations serve as main information service and system providers for family caregivers of the elderly with Dementia. In this study, three research questions were proposed in order to identify question types, information resources and information needs of family caregivers of the elderly with Dementia on Social Q&A site: 1) What types of questions had family caregivers of the elderly with Dementia proposed? 2) What types of physical, cognitive, and emotional characteristics did family caregivers describe in their questions? 3) What are the sources and characteristics of the best answers for family caregiver’s questions? The study employed content analysis to analyze 672 data selected from Yahoo! Answer archives. The findings reveal that the information needs of family caregivers of the elderly with Dementia exhibit three problem awareness stages: Doubt clarification stage, Medical advice searching stage, Care devoting stage. Moreover, nine question themes surfaced: knowledge of Dementia, diagnosis, treatment, care, social welfare and resources, individual and family, legal, religious, and others. Five question properties were also found: factual, prescriptive, advisory, quality, identification. The dimensions described by family caregivers in their questions included eleven physical characteristics, ten cognitive characteristics, and seven emotional characteristics. The best answer providers for family caregivers’ questions have four characteristics: general information provider, specialist, other family caregiver, and relevant worker. In addition, there are five types of information resource providers for the best answer: internet, human, mass media, book, and others. Overall, the study found that the information needs of family caregivers of the elderly with Dementia have several characteristics including: processing, complexity, overlapping, alternating, personalization, multiple and multilevel dimensions, and emotional affect. Finally, according to the findings and discussions, several suggestions were proposed for the information services and information system design. Three suggestions for the information services include: to provide specificity information services; to provide diverse information and to enhance emotional information services; to select quality online resources and to enhance online resource transfer and promotion. On the other hand, three suggestions for the information system design include: to design FQA interface; to build an integrated online platform consisting of internet and human resources; to provide a diverse searching environment with abundant external information resources.