Articles

Posted in Abstract, Patient Communities

Online Support Group for People Living with Depression (Abstract)

Posted on by Editor

An increasing number of patients turn to the Internet to seek information and support. Online support groups, in particular, have shown a strong potential to foster supportive and resourceful environments for patients without restrictions of time, space, and stigma.

Research has found that users of those groups exchange various types of support, such as informational support, emotional support, and social companionship. However, due to the scarcity of research, many other aspects of depression online support groups remain inconclusive. For example, knowledge gaps exist in the areas of user characteristics, patterns of use, and relationship between the two. In particular, little is known about how user characteristics, such as gender, age, illness severity and treatment history, affect the way they use depression online support groups. For instance, severely depressed users may request emotional support more often than less depressed users.

Users with less depressive symptoms, on the other hand, may request informational support and social companionship more often than severely depressed users. Users of younger age may receive support more often than they to others, while older users may give support more often than they receive. But those hypotheses are not yet tested.

Read full abstract on www.medicine20congress.com

Posted in Uncategorized

Exploring Healthcare Opportunities in Online Social Networks: Depressive Moods of Users Captured in Twitter

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See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

Depression is the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder in many developed countries. Despite increasing public knowledge and awareness, many individuals with depression go undetected and untreated. While public programs such as the National Depression Screening Day are an important step towards decreasing the prevalence of undiagnosed depression, their main limitation lies in the selection bias of people they can reach, because the programs are participation-oriented. In terms of reaching vulnerable individuals, one useful addition to existing screening methods is to utilize a large amount of content individuals share on online social networks. In Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, hundreds of millions of users across a wide demographic spectrum post their moods and thoughts in real-time. Data embedded in these sites hence provide a cost-effective way to study health behaviors from non-clinic-based populations.

See on www.medicine20congress.com

Posted in Uncategorized

Social Media, Media and Coverage

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See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

Social media makes it considerably more likely that patients learn about innovative and unproven therapies.  The mobilizing power of social networking means that unprecedented pressures can be applied on politicians and research funders to expand access to procedures for which there is little scientific support.  It allows patients a greater platform to challenge health care policies, research priorities and rulings.  Decision makers need to better engage the public, and not necessarily through social media, within the governance of the healthcare system and to be better able to justify decisions.  Health services and policy researchers need to develop better tools for analyzing social media (particularly trends in health conversations).

See on www.medicine20congress.com

Posted in Abstract

Development and Exploration of a Multifaceted Social Platform to Improve Patient Education, Communication, and Activity

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See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

This study was designed to explore how a multifaceted social platform might influence patient education, communication, and activity. Furthermore, objectives included understanding the importance of making approaches to patient engagement in these areas personalized, innovative, accessible, and robust. By utilizing both web and mobile interfaces, as well as employing various strategies to build a comprehensive network of tools for patients, researchers were able to compare and contrast various modern approaches to patient engagement.

See on www.medicine20congress.com

Posted in E-Patient

Patients band together via Web, persuading doctors to study their rare condition

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See on Scoop.it – Health Care Social Media Monitor

Nefertari Nelson-Williams was about to deliver her fifth child when she suffered a nearly fatal heart attack in 2008.The healthy former model suffered a tear in a coronary artery from a rare condition called SCAD (spontaneous coronary artery dissection) that could have killed her and her baby. “I couldn’t understand how something so rare could happen to me,” said Nelson-Williams, 38, now a freelance writer.

A decade ago, Nelson-Williams and the estimated 25 million Americans afflicted with rare disorders would likely have suffered in isolation, knowing little about their condition and living with fears of recurrence and passing it to their children.

Now, because of a cadre of Internet-savvy SCAD survivors who banded together and mobilized like a team of Navy SEALs, Nelson-Williams has joined an online patient-support community, learned more about her condition, and plans to participate in a patient-driven study to find the causes and cure for SCAD.

See on www.philly.com