Dekhili, Sihem

Co-Creation within Online Communities and Patient Smokers’ Well-Being - 2025.


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New technologies have fostered the emergence of a more connected healthcare system, which increases patients’ ability to control their health. This study investigates the effectiveness of online interactions in tobacco cessation. More specifically, it explores the impact of co-creation on the subjective well-being of patient-smokers as well as on their feeling of empowerment. The present findings, derived from a study adopting a PLS approach, involving 550 French members of an online healthcare community, confirm that patient-smokers’ engagement and their trust in the online healthcare community tend to enhance their value co-creation behavior. The latter appears to increase the individuals’ degree of empowerment and subjective well-being. Moreover, their degree of empowerment plays a mediating role in the relationship between value co-creation behavior and subjective well-being. This study offers a better comprehension of the role of OHCs as spaces where patients interact with the aim of creating value for patients by promoting well-being. JEL Codes: I11, I12, I31.