Users’ preference for using emoji in the online medical community

Abstract Background The application of information technology in the medical industry is growing. The traditional face-to-face doctor–patient interaction has turned into an online doctor–patient interaction, particularly in the case of an epidemic outbreak. Online doctor–patient communication has become increasingly common. Text communication can no longer meet people’s new communication needs. The appearance of emoji compensates for the challenges in online doctor–patient interactions to convey nontext information, such as facial emoji, gestures and voice tones. Objective This study aimed to explore the impact of using emoji during online doctor–patient communication on users’ perception of the medical community by considering the moderating effect of demographics. Methods An online questionnaire survey was conducted amongst 520 people from December 2021 to January 2022 by random sampling. The frequency, emoji use style and the users’ previous consultation experience score were used as the main independent variables in this study. The perceived effect of the user was adopted as the dependent variable. Wilcoxon signed-rank test and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis. Result For the use frequency and style of emoji mentioned in this study, a significant difference exists between the preference of users who use emoji for a single time and those who use the same emoji continuously (P < 0.001), with the former showing a better performance than the latter. A significant difference exists between users who use open-style emoji and users who use neutral-style emoji (P < 0.001). The emoji perception effect of open style was better than that of neutral style. Users’ preference for emoji use is not affected regardless of whether they are platform users a platform is used (P > 0.05). Men and individuals under 30 are easily influenced by the use of emoji and the characteristics of emoji use. People (users) with educational attainment not higher than high school education tend to have preferences for the frequency of emoji use. Conclusion The characteristics of emoji use affected the perceived effect of online communication with doctors. Single use of emoji and relatively open style of emoji had a positive impact on the degree of acceptance of doctors’ information. Men and people under the age of 30 showed more expressive preferences for facial features than women and people over the age of 30. Therefore, doctors should properly use emoji for patients with different characteristics to help strengthen the communication between doctors and patients. Moreover, the online medical community should design diversified emoji for patients with different characteristics to provide personalized services.