- The document presents a study that compares the types of social support exchanged between patients on two different communication functions (discussion forums and personal journals) of an online health social network for patients with alcoholism.
- The study found that discussion forums were used more for informational support like sharing advice and experiences, while personal journals were used more for emotional support like validation and encouragement.
- This difference in the types of social support exchanged on each communication function could be related to factors like their public or private nature or the social roles people take on in the online community.
Nurturant Support in Online Health Social NetworkingKat Chuang
Abstract:
Background: Expressing emotion in online support communities is an important aspect to enabling e-patients in connecting with each other, in expanding their social resources, and indirectly increase the amount of support for coping with health issues. Exploring the supportive interaction patterns in online health social networking would help us better understand how technology features impacts user behavior in this context.
Objective: We built upon previous research that identified different types of social support in online support communities by delving into patterns of supportive behavior across multiple computer-mediated communication (CMC) formats. Each format combines different ‘architectural elements’, affecting the resulting social spaces. Our research question compares communication among different format of text-based CMC provided on MedHelp.org health social networking environment.
Methods: We identified messages with nurturant support (emotional, esteem, network) across three different CMC formats (forums, journals, notes) of an online support community using content analysis. Our sample consists of 493 forum messages, 423 journal messages, and 1180 notes.
Results: Nurturant support types occurred frequently among messages offering support (Forum Comments, 67%; Journal Posts, 73.9%; Journal Comments, 82.1%; and Notes 84.9%), but less among messages requesting support. Of all the nurturing supports, emotional (i.e. encouragement) appeared most frequently, with network and esteem support appearing in patterns of varying combinations. Members of this community appeared to adapt some traditional face-to-face forms of support to their needs in becoming sober such as provision of encouragement, understanding, and empathy to one another.
Conclusion: We conclude that the CMC format may have the greatest influence on the supportive interactions because of characteristics such as audience reach and access. Other factors include perception of community versus personal space or purpose of communication. These results lead to a need for further research.
This presentation explains how to use social media in the health care industry effectively and the finer elements and available opportunities using Facebook and Twitter, specifically.
Nurturant Support in Online Health Social NetworkingKat Chuang
Abstract:
Background: Expressing emotion in online support communities is an important aspect to enabling e-patients in connecting with each other, in expanding their social resources, and indirectly increase the amount of support for coping with health issues. Exploring the supportive interaction patterns in online health social networking would help us better understand how technology features impacts user behavior in this context.
Objective: We built upon previous research that identified different types of social support in online support communities by delving into patterns of supportive behavior across multiple computer-mediated communication (CMC) formats. Each format combines different ‘architectural elements’, affecting the resulting social spaces. Our research question compares communication among different format of text-based CMC provided on MedHelp.org health social networking environment.
Methods: We identified messages with nurturant support (emotional, esteem, network) across three different CMC formats (forums, journals, notes) of an online support community using content analysis. Our sample consists of 493 forum messages, 423 journal messages, and 1180 notes.
Results: Nurturant support types occurred frequently among messages offering support (Forum Comments, 67%; Journal Posts, 73.9%; Journal Comments, 82.1%; and Notes 84.9%), but less among messages requesting support. Of all the nurturing supports, emotional (i.e. encouragement) appeared most frequently, with network and esteem support appearing in patterns of varying combinations. Members of this community appeared to adapt some traditional face-to-face forms of support to their needs in becoming sober such as provision of encouragement, understanding, and empathy to one another.
Conclusion: We conclude that the CMC format may have the greatest influence on the supportive interactions because of characteristics such as audience reach and access. Other factors include perception of community versus personal space or purpose of communication. These results lead to a need for further research.
This presentation explains how to use social media in the health care industry effectively and the finer elements and available opportunities using Facebook and Twitter, specifically.
Brodeur Parnters and UNC School of Social Work -- Needs assessment and design implications of breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and Marfan syndrome health e-communities. Posted on Regulations.gov public docket FDA-2009-N-0441 on 12/10/09.
I was pleased to be involved in some of the interviews that happened when the authors were planning this report... and then to be asked to write the Preface was an honour. Since publication I am not myself very aware of the impact of it, and I think this is such an important piece of work, that it deserves publicity as widely as possible. Hence uploaded here
For more classes visit
www.snaptutorial.com
What is your idea of a healthy community? Provide specific examples. What do healthy communities have in common? How would you provide care for a community if your idea of a healthy
Role of Social Media in Healthcare Domain: An Integrated ReviewIJERA Editor
The ever increasing role of social media now-a-days in people’s life created newer avenues for research in almost every domain. In the field of healthcare, social media and user-generated content are opening more opportunities for the researchers to kick-start their research by digging out patterns and trends from the millions of data points available and unveiling interesting correlations between the parameters that would affect the outcome of their research which would otherwise go unnoticed. Yet, there are some issues like ethical concerns, anonymity of data providers, and the apt approach to use the user-generated content, which have to be addressed through further research. The Hashtag project by organizations like Symplur Signals provides a free and open platform for the stakeholders in the healthcare domain that connects them to related communities and their conversations thus providing rich datasets of user-generated content for better research in healthcare social media.
Online and Virtual Health Information Use, Health Empowerment and Health Risksasclepiuspdfs
Access to virtual health information is associated with improved knowledge about health issues. In this commentary, we present the challenges associated with the use of the virtual sources of information including eHealth and mHealth for health purposes. We analyze the difficulties caused by a set of individual-level constraints - lack of technology skills, chronic condition, and a distinction between lifestyle and healthcare goals that prevent the effective use of eHealth and mHealth sources. We propose that institutional level efforts encouraging the use of virtual health sources toward increased health empowerment and self-management practices should account for these individual-level constraints. By doing so, institutional health-care providers will be more likely to increase the quality in the delivery of health services and health programs, improve the likelihood of effective self-management practices, and reduce the risk of inducing secondary digital divide effects.
Brodeur Parnters and UNC School of Social Work -- Needs assessment and design implications of breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and Marfan syndrome health e-communities. Posted on Regulations.gov public docket FDA-2009-N-0441 on 12/10/09.
I was pleased to be involved in some of the interviews that happened when the authors were planning this report... and then to be asked to write the Preface was an honour. Since publication I am not myself very aware of the impact of it, and I think this is such an important piece of work, that it deserves publicity as widely as possible. Hence uploaded here
For more classes visit
www.snaptutorial.com
What is your idea of a healthy community? Provide specific examples. What do healthy communities have in common? How would you provide care for a community if your idea of a healthy
Role of Social Media in Healthcare Domain: An Integrated ReviewIJERA Editor
The ever increasing role of social media now-a-days in people’s life created newer avenues for research in almost every domain. In the field of healthcare, social media and user-generated content are opening more opportunities for the researchers to kick-start their research by digging out patterns and trends from the millions of data points available and unveiling interesting correlations between the parameters that would affect the outcome of their research which would otherwise go unnoticed. Yet, there are some issues like ethical concerns, anonymity of data providers, and the apt approach to use the user-generated content, which have to be addressed through further research. The Hashtag project by organizations like Symplur Signals provides a free and open platform for the stakeholders in the healthcare domain that connects them to related communities and their conversations thus providing rich datasets of user-generated content for better research in healthcare social media.
Online and Virtual Health Information Use, Health Empowerment and Health Risksasclepiuspdfs
Access to virtual health information is associated with improved knowledge about health issues. In this commentary, we present the challenges associated with the use of the virtual sources of information including eHealth and mHealth for health purposes. We analyze the difficulties caused by a set of individual-level constraints - lack of technology skills, chronic condition, and a distinction between lifestyle and healthcare goals that prevent the effective use of eHealth and mHealth sources. We propose that institutional level efforts encouraging the use of virtual health sources toward increased health empowerment and self-management practices should account for these individual-level constraints. By doing so, institutional health-care providers will be more likely to increase the quality in the delivery of health services and health programs, improve the likelihood of effective self-management practices, and reduce the risk of inducing secondary digital divide effects.
Consumer health informatics for people who use AAC: Views on e-health records...Bronwyn Hemsley
Paper presented at the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) Biennial Conference in Toronto, Canada, August 8th to 12th 2016.
As part of the digital health phenomenon, a plethora of interactive digital platforms have been established in recent years to elicit lay people’s experiences of illness and healthcare. The function of these platforms, as expressed on the main pages of their websites, is to provide the tools and forums whereby patients and caregivers, and in some cases medical practitioners, can share their experiences with others, benefit from the support and knowledge of other contributors and contribute to large aggregated data archives as part of developing better medical treatments and services and conducting medical research.
However what may not always be readily apparent to the users of these platforms are the growing commercial uses by many of the platforms’ owners of the archives of the data they contribute. This article examines this phenomenon of what I term ‘the digital patient experience economy’. In so doing I discuss such aspects as prosumption, the phenomena of big data and metric assemblages, the discourse and ethic of sharing and the commercialisation of affective labour via such platforms. I argue that via these online platforms patients’ opinions and experiences may be expressed in more diverse and accessible forums than ever before, but simultaneously they have become exploited in novel ways.
Use of Electronic Technologies to Promote Community and Person.docxdickonsondorris
Use of Electronic Technologies to Promote Community and Personal
Health for Individuals Unconnected to Health Care Systems
Ensuring health care ser-
vices for populations outside
the mainstream health care
system is challenging for all
providers. But developing
the health care infrastructure
to better serve such uncon-
nected individuals is critical
to their health care status, to
third-party payers, to overall
cost savings in public health,
and to reducing health dis-
parities.
Our increasingly sophisti-
cated electronic technolo-
gies offer promising ways to
more effectively engage this
difficult to reach group and
increase its access to health
care resources. This process
requires developing not only
newer technologies but also
collaboration between com-
munity leaders and health
care providers to bring un-
connected individuals into
formal health care systems.
We present three strate-
gies to reach vulnerable
groups, outline benefits and
challenges, and provide
examples of successful
programs. (Am J Public
Health. 2011;101:1163–1167.
d o i : 1 0. 21 0 5/ A J P H . 2 0 10 .
30 0 00 3 )
John F. Crilly, PhD, MPH, MSW, Robert H. Keefe, ACSW, PhD, and Fred Volpe, MPA
DURING THE PAST DECADE,
the United States has experien-
ced a rapid growth of electronic
health information technology in
hospital and health care provider
systems to enhance access and
quality for service recipients. State
health departments have devel-
oped health information ex-
changes across large health care
networks, insurance providers,
and independent physician prac-
tices, and the use of electronic
health records has greatly accel-
erated.1 These initiatives evince
progress toward achieving a fully
connected national health care
system by 2014.2
Nevertheless, cities and
counties struggle to understand
the health care needs of individ-
uals who do not or cannot easily
access formal health care net-
works but use expensive services
for emergency and routine care.
Health information technology is
currently designed to benefit pri-
marily populations already con-
nected to such systems. As systems
increase their use of health data to
influence treatment and policy,
developing strategies to include
individuals who are largely out-
side health care networks is criti-
cal.
The US health care system has
been criticized for low-quality care
that produces multiple medical
errors3,4 and high-cost services
that limit access to care,5 perpetu-
ating health disparities. Primary
care focused on preventing illness
and death is associated with more
equitable distribution of health
and better outcomes than is spe-
cialty care6---8; countries directing
resources to primary care and
enhancing population health have
lower costs and superior out-
comes.9 Although the United
States has the world’s most ex-
pensive health care system, other
countries regularly surpass the
United States on most health in-
dicators, including quality, access,
efficiency, ...
Access to oral health care services around the world is limited by a lack of universal coverage. The internet and social media can be an important source for patients to access supplementary oral health related information
4-5 Annotations and Writing Plan - Thu Jan 30 2111Claire Knaus.docxlorainedeserre
4-5 Annotations and Writing Plan - Thu Jan 30 21:11
Claire Knaus
Annotations:
Bekalu, M. A., McCloud, R. F., & Viswanath, K. (2019). Association of Social Media Use With Social Well-Being, Positive Mental Health, and Self-Rated Health: Disentangling Routine Use From Emotional Connection to Use. Health Education & Behavior, 46(2_suppl), 69S-80S. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198119863768
It seems that this source is arguing the effect of social media on mental health. This source uses this evidence to support the argument: Provided studies focusing on why individuals use social media, types of social network platforms, and the value of social capital. A counterargument for this source is: Studies that focus more on statistical usage rather than emotion connection. Personally, I believe the source is doing a good job of supporting its arguments because it provides an abundance of study references and clearly portrays the information and intent. I think this source will be very helpful in supporting my argument because of the focus on emotional connection to social media and its effects on mental health.
Matsakis, L. (2019). How Pro-Eating Disorder Posts Evade Filters on Social Media. In Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. (Reprinted from How Pro-Eating Disorder Posts Evade Filters on Social Media, Wired, 2018, June 13) Retrieved from https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/UAZKKH366290962/OVIC?u=nhc_main&sid=OVIC&xid=2c90b7b5
It seems that this source is arguing that social media platforms are not doing enough to eliminate harmful pro-ED posts. This source uses this evidence to support the argument: Information about specific platforms and what they have done to moderate content, links for more information, and what constitutes as harmful content. A counterargument for this source is that it is too difficult for platforms to remove the content and to even find it. In addition, it is believed there may be harmful effects on vulnerable people posting this type of content. Personally, I believe the source is doing a good job of supporting its arguments because it provides opposing viewpoints as well as raising awareness of some of the dangers of social media posts. I think this source will be very helpful in supporting my argument because it provides information on specifically what is being done to moderate this type of content on social media, and what some of the difficulties in moderating are.
Investigators at University of Leeds Describe Findings in Eating Disorders (Pro-ana versus Pro-recovery: A Content Analytic Comparison of Social Media Users' Communication about Eating Disorders on Twitter and Tumblr). (2017, September 4). Mental Health Weekly Digest, 38. Retrieved from https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/apps/doc/A502914419/OVIC?u=nhc_main&sid=OVIC&xid=5e60152f
It seems that this source is arguing that there are more positive, anti-anorexia posts on social media than harmful, pro-ED content. ...
Use MS Word to check your grammar and spelling prior to posting. Y.docxjolleybendicty
Use MS Word to check your grammar and spelling prior to posting. You will not be able to view your classmates' responses until you have submitted your initial post. Keep in mind that the system monitors your actions within the forum. Keep in mind that the rules regarding plagiarism and academic dishonesty apply to discussion forms, so don't copy or submit another's work; Cite your work, and provide references if/when necessary.
· prompt and it must be a minimum of 250 words. Citations, titles, copying questions, references, and other identifying information does not count toward word count.
· You are required to use proper grammar and spelling. When using other sources, citations using APA style are required.
· Direct quotes are not permitted in discussion posting,
Discussion Topic:
In Chapter 3 of your textbook, various methodological techniques for studying the social world are discussed. A key aspect of sociological research is utilizing the power of observation. Applying what you have learned about sociological research: First, discuss the role of observational research as a key methodology for studying society. Second, utilizing nonparticipant observation, participant observation, ethnography or netnography observe and record a detailed account of a social context or virtual social context that you are no stranger to (think local coffee shop, shopping mall, church or night club, a blog, twitter feed, or Instagram) from a sociological perspective. Be careful to be objective and ethically neutral. Do not include judgments or opinions of behaviors but rather, as best as possible, systematic observations. Third, discuss how a common-sense view of that social setting may look different from a sociological one. Does looking through the lens of sociological research methodology transform how that social space may be viewed. Substantiate your views. Fourth and finally, post a response to another classmate's posting discussing your thoughts in a respectful and thoughtful manner. What stood out to you about their observations and the behaviors occurring?
Currie et al. BMC Health Services Research (2015) 15:162
DOI 10.1186/s12913-015-0825-0
RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access
Attitudes towards the use and acceptance of
eHealth technologies: a case study of older adults
living with chronic pain and implications for rural
healthcare
Margaret Currie1†, Lorna J Philip2*† and Anne Roberts3
Abstract
Background: Providing health services to an ageing population is challenging, and in rural areas even more so. It is
expensive to provide high quality services to small populations who are widely dispersed; staff and patients are
often required to travel considerable distances to access services, and the economic downturn has created a
climate where delivery costs are under constant review. There is potential for technology to overcome some of
these problems by decreasing or ceasing the need for patients and health professionals to travel to attend/de.
User engagement research final report - summary, july 2012Rich Watts
Since March, ecdp has been working with our members and other disabled and older people from across Essex and with a variety of lived experience, to understand how views of health and social care can be effectively captured. In total we engaged directly with 121 people for this work and indirectly engaged with over 470 people and 21 organisations. We also distributed almost 1,000 separate pieces of promotional material to other stakeholders across the county.
This is the summary of this research, which was presented to HealthWatch Essex in July 2012.
For more information, please visit www.ecdp.org.uk
DjangoCon 2013 - Rapid prototyping and communicating with clientsKat Chuang
This talk will focus on the conversations around rapid prototyping. Miscommunication between developers and clients can occur because of different perspectives and work styles. In this talk I'll introduce interaction design concepts and templating with Django to show how easy it is to set up a minimally viable UI and explain the value in letting users feel that they have creative control.
A talk given at the NYC Python Meetup Event on July 9, 2013. This talk covers the importance of a web framework in communicating between web developers and clients.
Ozempic: Preoperative Management of Patients on GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Saeid Safari
Preoperative Management of Patients on GLP-1 Receptor Agonists like Ozempic and Semiglutide
ASA GUIDELINE
NYSORA Guideline
2 Case Reports of Gastric Ultrasound
Prix Galien International 2024 Forum ProgramLevi Shapiro
June 20, 2024, Prix Galien International and Jerusalem Ethics Forum in ROME. Detailed agenda including panels:
- ADVANCES IN CARDIOLOGY: A NEW PARADIGM IS COMING
- WOMEN’S HEALTH: FERTILITY PRESERVATION
- WHAT’S NEW IN THE TREATMENT OF INFECTIOUS,
ONCOLOGICAL AND INFLAMMATORY SKIN DISEASES?
- ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ETHICS
- GENE THERAPY
- BEYOND BORDERS: GLOBAL INITIATIVES FOR DEMOCRATIZING LIFE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES AND PROMOTING ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE
- ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN LIFE SCIENCES
- Prix Galien International Awards Ceremony
micro teaching on communication m.sc nursing.pdfAnurag Sharma
Microteaching is a unique model of practice teaching. It is a viable instrument for the. desired change in the teaching behavior or the behavior potential which, in specified types of real. classroom situations, tends to facilitate the achievement of specified types of objectives.
Recomendações da OMS sobre cuidados maternos e neonatais para uma experiência pós-natal positiva.
Em consonância com os ODS – Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável e a Estratégia Global para a Saúde das Mulheres, Crianças e Adolescentes, e aplicando uma abordagem baseada nos direitos humanos, os esforços de cuidados pós-natais devem expandir-se para além da cobertura e da simples sobrevivência, de modo a incluir cuidados de qualidade.
Estas diretrizes visam melhorar a qualidade dos cuidados pós-natais essenciais e de rotina prestados às mulheres e aos recém-nascidos, com o objetivo final de melhorar a saúde e o bem-estar materno e neonatal.
Uma “experiência pós-natal positiva” é um resultado importante para todas as mulheres que dão à luz e para os seus recém-nascidos, estabelecendo as bases para a melhoria da saúde e do bem-estar a curto e longo prazo. Uma experiência pós-natal positiva é definida como aquela em que as mulheres, pessoas que gestam, os recém-nascidos, os casais, os pais, os cuidadores e as famílias recebem informação consistente, garantia e apoio de profissionais de saúde motivados; e onde um sistema de saúde flexível e com recursos reconheça as necessidades das mulheres e dos bebês e respeite o seu contexto cultural.
Estas diretrizes consolidadas apresentam algumas recomendações novas e já bem fundamentadas sobre cuidados pós-natais de rotina para mulheres e neonatos que recebem cuidados no pós-parto em unidades de saúde ou na comunidade, independentemente dos recursos disponíveis.
É fornecido um conjunto abrangente de recomendações para cuidados durante o período puerperal, com ênfase nos cuidados essenciais que todas as mulheres e recém-nascidos devem receber, e com a devida atenção à qualidade dos cuidados; isto é, a entrega e a experiência do cuidado recebido. Estas diretrizes atualizam e ampliam as recomendações da OMS de 2014 sobre cuidados pós-natais da mãe e do recém-nascido e complementam as atuais diretrizes da OMS sobre a gestão de complicações pós-natais.
O estabelecimento da amamentação e o manejo das principais intercorrências é contemplada.
Recomendamos muito.
Vamos discutir essas recomendações no nosso curso de pós-graduação em Aleitamento no Instituto Ciclos.
Esta publicação só está disponível em inglês até o momento.
Prof. Marcus Renato de Carvalho
www.agostodourado.com
Ethanol (CH3CH2OH), or beverage alcohol, is a two-carbon alcohol
that is rapidly distributed in the body and brain. Ethanol alters many
neurochemical systems and has rewarding and addictive properties. It
is the oldest recreational drug and likely contributes to more morbidity,
mortality, and public health costs than all illicit drugs combined. The
5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
(DSM-5) integrates alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence into a single
disorder called alcohol use disorder (AUD), with mild, moderate,
and severe subclassifications (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
In the DSM-5, all types of substance abuse and dependence have been
combined into a single substance use disorder (SUD) on a continuum
from mild to severe. A diagnosis of AUD requires that at least two of
the 11 DSM-5 behaviors be present within a 12-month period (mild
AUD: 2–3 criteria; moderate AUD: 4–5 criteria; severe AUD: 6–11 criteria).
The four main behavioral effects of AUD are impaired control over
drinking, negative social consequences, risky use, and altered physiological
effects (tolerance, withdrawal). This chapter presents an overview
of the prevalence and harmful consequences of AUD in the U.S.,
the systemic nature of the disease, neurocircuitry and stages of AUD,
comorbidities, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, genetic risk factors, and
pharmacotherapies for AUD.
Report Back from SGO 2024: What’s the Latest in Cervical Cancer?bkling
Are you curious about what’s new in cervical cancer research or unsure what the findings mean? Join Dr. Emily Ko, a gynecologic oncologist at Penn Medicine, to learn about the latest updates from the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) 2024 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer. Dr. Ko will discuss what the research presented at the conference means for you and answer your questions about the new developments.
- Video recording of this lecture in English language: https://youtu.be/lK81BzxMqdo
- Video recording of this lecture in Arabic language: https://youtu.be/Ve4P0COk9OI
- Link to download the book free: https://nephrotube.blogspot.com/p/nephrotube-nephrology-books.html
- Link to NephroTube website: www.NephroTube.com
- Link to NephroTube social media accounts: https://nephrotube.blogspot.com/p/join-nephrotube-on-social-media.html
263778731218 Abortion Clinic /Pills In Harare ,sisternakatoto
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Knee anatomy and clinical tests 2024.pdfvimalpl1234
This includes all relevant anatomy and clinical tests compiled from standard textbooks, Campbell,netter etc..It is comprehensive and best suited for orthopaedicians and orthopaedic residents.
1. A comparative study of supportive interactions between e-patients across
communication functions of a social network site
Katherine Y. Chuang
College of Information Science & Technology
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
katychuang@drexel.edu
ABSTRACT
Online health social networking allows patients and their
caretakers to seek and provide social support for health
purposes. While previous studies of online health support
groups have address a number of research issues, there is
a lack of studies that compare supportive communication
tools. This paper reports on a comparative study between
levels of social support of two social networking site
functions (discussion forum and journals). Using content
analysis to classify support types (informational and
emotional), it was found that MedHelp’s alcoholism
community members are more likely to exchange
information on the discussion forum and emotional support
on through journals. The difference in support exchanged
could be related to the communication tool design
characteristics or social roles that people perform.
Suggestions are made for future studies in this area.
Implications from this study can help health professionals
or designers of these tools.
Author Keywords
Social support, online support groups, alcoholism.
INTRODUCTION
Over 83% of internet users in the U.S. look for health
information online [1]. In this paper, these users are
considered to be e-patients. 59% of e-patients have
consulted blog comments, doctor reviews, and podcasts;
20% have posted comments, reviews, photos, audio, video
or tags related to health care [1]. As our society enters an
era of socialized online behavior, people are increasingly
tailoring their online information-gathering, targeting “just-
in-time someone-like-me” health information sharing,
especially young people between 18 and 49 years of age
[1]. E-patients are increasingly using social networking
platforms to teach each other about conditions and
treatments as a form of social support [2]. Understanding
interactions among e-patients can provide insight to health
professionals who design intervention programs for
behavior change [3-4].
A social networking site is a virtual space where registered
users can create profiles about themselves, upload photos,
keep in touch with friends and make new friends with
common interests [5]. Its distinguishing feature is the
emphasis on building and reflecting social relations.
MedHelp (www.medhelp.org) is an example of this type of
website for e-patients; it was founded in 1994 as a resource
to help patients cope with their health conditions by
connecting users with information resources (i.e. news,
clinical trials, and forums). It now hosts many users and
patient communities who communicate with each other
through forums, profiles, and journals.
Studying this type of website is important because it is the
technology that the mainstream is adopting and it is a
potentially powerful tool to use for social support. Studies
have demonstrated that online support groups can have a
positive impact on quality of life, decision making by
patients and improved health outcomes [6]. These groups
can also contribute to a sense of empowerment for patients.
Yet, clearly there are dilemmas in terms of accuracy of
information, and the long-term effect of such health
promotion interventions. These unknown variables make
research in this field compelling and practical.
This paper describes some research problems addressed by
previous studies from multiple disciplines. This paper also
reports results from a preliminary study to show a possible
avenue for future research of online support groups.
SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS IN FIELD
Researchers who have studied online health support groups,
come from diverse backgrounds and have different research
focus, such as identifying patient-level expertise [7],
evaluating online intervention programs [3-4, 6, 8],
understanding the effects from participation in support
groups [3, 6, 9-11], or studying supportive communication
behaviors [11-14]. Research problems can be grouped into
three categories: (1) issues that concern health professionals
such as quality of information and evaluating health
outcomes; (2) issues that concern e-patients such as what
they can gain from support groups; and (3) issues that
concern the field of health informatics such as designing
technology needs to support both doctors and patients.
1. Issues concerning health professionals
Health professionals are concerned with whether patients
are misinformed by online health information. Studies have
shown that while information is sometimes wrong on these
websites, users will correct their mistakes [13]. Patients
doing their own research for health information may enjoy
feeling prepared when making a doctor visit [11]. Online
support groups often contain a lot of useful experiential
knowledge from veteran patients, such as tips for making
2. hospital visits, coping with life changes, or dealing with
insurance [7-8].
Health professionals are also concerned with health
outcomes and evaluating online intervention programs.
Online support groups can be a useful behavior change
technique for the design of interventions [3-4, 6]. The
growing popularity of social media use has inspired
healthcare professionals to look into incorporating it into
healthcare programs [2], but still much is unknown about e-
patient behavior in social media adoption.
2. Issues concerning patients
Social Support Types
Support groups are a source of social support, a broad
concept that has no generally accepted definition but is
comprised of different kinds such as informational,
emotional, or instrumental assistance [11, 13, 15]. Although
social support was studied in a variety of settings, there
lacks a standard typology. Social support types have been
described in detail by many other papers [10-11, 13-14, 17-
18] of two forms: resources intended to assist stressed
individual to solve or eliminate problems causing distress
(i.e. offering information or tangible aid), and emotional
understanding (i.e. giving compliments, recognizing
achievement, sense of belonging to group) to comfort
support seekers [19-20]. Other types of positive interactions
common among online support groups can include
introductions, expressions of gratitude or congratulations
[14, 21-22]. One line of research has attempted to describe
categories of social support behaviors, which can range
from simple to more complex categorizations (see [20, 23-
25]). Some users are more likely to offer support whereas
others are more likely to lurk [8, 14, 16]. While some social
support research looks at the roles people have in providing
support (i.e. spouses, veteran patients), there lacks studies
looking into the relational dynamics of support exchanged
from an online support group based on social network site.
Online vs. Face-to-Face support
Communication through the Internet allows people to be
anonymous, use text-based messages, interact independent
of time and place, and have many possibilities to expand
social network [26]. Computer-mediated features can affect
how people compose messages, how they acquire and
maintain relationships, and even affect group formation
[26]. On the plus side, these online support groups give
people the sense of belongingness, and to learn how to
behave and cope with situation they are in [6, 26]. On the
downside, difficulties may result from lack of visual and
aural cues found in traditional face-to-face communication
[6, 11]. Issues of cyberstalking, e-patients leaving virtual
trails, and assessing reliability of information are still of
concern of the online environment. Traditionally, doctors or
family would be first source of health information; however
the Internet opens up opportunities for people to get support
without effects of stigma.
Participation Factors
Motivations for participating in online support groups can
be from an information need or desire to be altruistic [27].
Researchers have observed that user activity levels in online
communities tend to vary by individual [10, 28-29]. This
might be because of different roles a person has (i.e.
caretaker, patient, nurse, friend, etc) or personal values.
Additionally, these websites are a great source of social
support from compassionate people who may have had
similar experiences [10-11, 30]. The more time people
spend in an online group, the larger their online social
network and the higher the satisfaction with the received
support [31].
Several studies have investigated social support exchanges
for various online patient communities such as breast
cancer [7], disabilities [13], HIV/Aids [21], eating disorders
[17], psychosis [14], and depression [22]. Participation in
online health communities may be impacted by on the
stigma attached to the illness [21, 32], rarity of disease, age
[11, 33], or gender [34]. Participation may also be because
people want to socially compare themselves with others to
stand out, or to find people to fit in with for sense of
belongingness. More research is needed to understand how
social support provision and seeking is influenced by an
individual’s social connections.
3. Issues concerning health informatics
Much of the research in health informatics focuses on
designing electronic health records, databases systems, or
expert systems, rather than social computing for consumers.
Of the small but growing body of literature on Internet-
based patient communities, researchers identified patient
expertise [7] and various types of support [7, 17-20] from
interactions in discussion forums, or how collect patient
data could help medical research. What has not been
studied as much are interactions exchanged on websites
specifically geared towards communication between
individuals who have a relationship with each other, i.e.
blogs or a social network site. Further research to increase
understanding of social interactions on this type of platform
is needed since social networking is predicted to increase in
popularity in the future [21].
EXISTING SOLUTIONS
Previous studies focused their research objectives on
various issues: studying the strategies for soliciting support
[18]; investigating various support types [7, 17-20];
understanding the nature of shared patient expertise such as
problems in coping with breast cancer and
recommendations [7]; identifying types of group
interactions [22] such as sharing personal experience,
expression of gratitude, and offering congratulations can
facilitate social support exchanges among group members;
and last in comparing online empathy with offline empathy
[20]. All the aforementioned studies used data from
discussion boards rather than social network sites.
3. This study focuses on the supportive interactions through
communication functions of a social network site. It is
different from previous studies because it views
communication medium as a tool in seeking support and
that its’ selection can have impact on interactions.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
New social media technology shows a gap in research
literature that studies interactions between e-patients. The
research question that can be addressed at this time is,
“What is the impact of communication channels on
interactions where social support is exchanged across social
media (i.e. discussion forums, and journals)?” This question
could be explored more fully with more specific questions
such as the following:
1. Do users select different communication tools for
different purposes?
2. What are patterns of supportive interactions across
social media?
3. What are the different supportive roles people perform
while participating in their social network and how is it
communicated?
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS
This section discusses some preliminary research ideas and
a proposed approach to compare two data samples. Social
support types were identified in an online alcoholism
community for comparison between threads on a discussion
forum (a public tool) vs. user journals (more personal).
Preliminary results on the levels of social support identified
are reported. Knowing characteristics of social support
offered and sought in these virtual groups will help us to
better understand the range of information needs (i.e.
advice) in a supportive electronic environment.
MedHelp has a few communication tools for members to
use in conveying social support. The discussion forums are
publicly accessible by members and nonmembers alike,
where each thread is structured by an initial post and
corresponding comments replied to the post. Users’
journals follow the same structure – posts and comments –
but privacy level can be set to private, friends only, or
everybody. Each user has the option to show activity on
their profile page – i.e. new journal and forum posts,
whereas forum activity is all displayed on the forum page.
Approach
The MedHelp alcoholism community was selected for this
preliminary study. Data was obtained from the discussion
forum and the journals from members of the community
using a web crawler on September 9th
, 2009. Because
emotional content is not currently recognizable with
automatic methods, a qualitative content analysis was used
to classify support types from three months time period.
Concepts for coding social support types were developed
first by reviewing related studies, their definitions and
examples. Concepts were grouped into three high-level
categories – informational, emotional, instrumental –
proposed by [23]. These concepts are appropriate for this
study as it was used in similar studies [13-14, 17-18]. Next
the codes were tested on a small sample (n=10) to verify the
applicability of definitions to alcoholism related messages
and modified as necessary. Frequencies of each code
category were calculated to analyze the overall levels of
activity per support category (i.e. how many posts have
each type of support?). We ignore typos and grammatical
errors in messages. There may be instances where a support
type occurs multiple times in a message (i.e. two book
referrals) the type is counted only once per message.
Coding Scheme
There were three support types with sublevel concepts.
Messages were coded by sublevel concept then grouped
into the top level category for comparing informational vs.
emotional supports. Instrumental support was not found in
this data and not reported.
Informational support in posts provide information (i.e.
personal background information, describing certain
incidents, coping techniques, etc.) or request information
(i.e. advice, opinions, etc.) [14, 17-18, 23]. Subcategories
include: advice, facts, personal experiences, information
referral, and opinions.
Nurturant support in posts provides emotional expressions
of caring or concern (i.e. alleviating feelings of guilt,
empathy, etc.) or can implicitly ask for support (i.e.
validation of problem or feelings, presence of others to
avoid feeling alone, etc.) [17-18, 23-25] Subcategories
include: esteem, network, and emotional.
Instrumental Support: provision of material or financial aid,
or services [14, 17-18, 23]. There are no examples available
from the dataset. An example is offering to drive someone
to Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Results
The first sample consists of forum posts (FP=81) and
comments (FC=412), which totals to 493 messages. Forum
posts were created by patients themselves (n=56) or
caretakers (n=14). 11 posts remain unidentified. The second
sample had 423 messages, composed of journal posts
(JP=88) and comments (JC=335).
Sample Forums Journals
Size N = 493 N = 423
Posts FP = 81 JP = 88
Comments FC = 412 JC = 335
Figure 1. Sample Sizes
The results from forum threads and journals are presented
first by support type offered and then by support type
sought. Instrumental support was not found in either sample
and thus not presented in this section.
Support Offered
Forum messages offered more informational support
(84.7%) than nurturant support (58.6%). On the other hand,
4. journal messages were more likely to have offered nurturant
support (80.3%) than informational support (53.1%).
275
65
276
13
174
81
351
67
(n=335) JC
(n=88) JP
(n=412) FC
(n=81) FP
Informational Nurturant
Figure 2. Offered Support
82.7% of forum posts provided informational support. For
instance, users often introduced themselves by describing
how much they drink. Users were less likely to start threads
offering nurturant support (16%) such as encouragement to
stay sober. Some messages offered both information and
emotional support. Many comments (85.2%) offered
information such as updates on a situation or answering
questions in the posts, while a lesser majority (66.9%)
offered emotional support such as sympathy.
92.0% of journal posts provided some form of information
and less likely to have an emotional nature (73.8%). 51.2%
of the comments offered some form of information in
response to the journal post, whereas 82.0% of comments
offered nurturant.
Requested Support
Forum users sought more informational support (24.9%)
than emotional support (15%), and journal users sought
more emotional support (14.6%) than information (10.6%).
14
32
26
36
28
12
64
59
(n=335) …
(n=88) JP
(n=412) …
(n=81) FP
Informational Nurturant
Figure 3. Requested Support
72.8% forum posts sought information (i.e. recommended
drugs for treatment). A smaller 44.4% sought emotional
support. However, the comments had much less requested
support. 15.5% sought informational support such as
clarification of information and a minimal 6.3% were
looking for emotional support such as validation.
13.6% journal posts sought information such as advice or
other topics unrelated to alcohol abuse (i.e. pregnancy).
Much more posts (36.3%) express need for emotional
support. Conversely, in the comments there was
significantly less requested support. 8.35% sought
informational support such as clarification and a minimal
0.29% was looking for emotional support.
For both samples, forum users were more likely to
exchange information than any other type of support.
Journal posts were more likely to request emotional
support, and journal comments are likely to respond with
provision of emotional support. This might be related to the
connection between individuals using journals who interact
at a more intimate level. Additionally, users may be using
the forum as a way to reach out to a greater network to ask
for opinions. Research on Yahoo! Answers portal shows a
large percentage of users asking for opinions, which may
indicate a need for advice on everyday decisions [26]. It
seems that users choose each communication tool for
different purposes [27].
Suggested Research
In the subsequent phases of the preliminary study,
investigations will be made to understand more about social
relations among users who exchange social support. Social
psychology research explored issues relationship intimacy
and trust [28-29] as a factor for exchanging social support.
People have relationships in different contexts of shared
experience (i.e. work, family, book club) [11] and these
relations may impact motives for participating in online
support groups.
The concept of social network analysis (i.e. measuring
closeness of two individuals, the strength of their tie, and
their social roles) to study how multiple individuals interact
with each other in a larger group setting may be useful. A
mixed methods approach would be needed to integrate
study of social support types with relational dynamics.
Contributions from research
In this study, we have compared the social supports in
forum and journal formats of MedHelp. The result in this
work can be useful in many ways: (1) providing more
insights to technological design factors and purpose behind
supportive communications, and (2) providing insights on
how online intervention program can be developed and
promoted.
ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION AT CONSORTIUM
It would be wonderful to have the opportunity to discuss the
pros and cons of this research direction that compares social
media communication functions. Here are some specific
questions: How to do further qualitative analysis and report
results in such a way that multiple samples can be
compared? Would social network analysis metrics be useful
to this line of work, for future understanding of patterns of
behavior (i.e. measuring in/out degrees, centrality, etc.)?
5. CONCLUSION
The increase of people searching for health information
online and using social media opens up a new door for
considering this technology for online intervention
programs. This paper summarized research literature
relating to the study online support groups. A preliminary
study was reported as an example of further research in the
field. Some ideas for future studies were suggested as well
as their contributions.
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