ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2012
Interaction patterns of nurturant support exchanged in online health social networking.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Impact of Personality Factors and Preceding User Comments on the Processing of Research Findings on Deep Brain Stimulation: A Randomized Controlled Experiment in a Simulated Online Forum.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Trial
- When I Receive Too Much Social Support: The Effect of Social Support Overload on Users' Life Burnout and Discontinuance in Fitness Apps.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Using Machine Learning of Online Expression to Explain Recovery Trajectories: Content Analytic Approach to Studying a Substance Use Disorder Forum.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- What topics are women interested in during pregnancy: exploring the role of social media as informational and emotional support.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Can online social support be detrimental in stigmatized chronic diseases? A quadratic model of the effects of informational and emotional support on self-care behavior of HIV patients.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2018Article
- Detecting Recovery Problems Just in Time: Application of Automated Linguistic Analysis and Supervised Machine Learning to an Online Substance Abuse Forum.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- Engagement as a Driver of Growth of Online Health Forums: Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Observational
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- The Criteria People Use in Relevance Decisions on Health Information: An Analysis of User Eye Movements When Browsing a Health Discussion Forum.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Article
- Symptom clusters in women with breast cancer: an analysis of data from social media and a research study.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2016Article
- In Pursuit of Theoretical Ground in Behavior Change Support Systems: Analysis of Peer-to-Peer Communication in a Health-Related Online Community.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Article
- A web-based supportive intervention for families living with depression: content analysis and formative evaluation.JMIR research protocols · 2014Article
- Enabling community through social media.Journal of medical Internet research · 2013Article
- Social and self-reflective use of a Web-based personally controlled health management system.Journal of medical Internet research · 2013Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundExpressing emotion in online support communities is an important aspect of enabling e-patients to connect with each other and expand their social resources. Indirectly it increases 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.
objectiveTo build on 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 formats. Each format combines different architectural elements, affecting the resulting social spaces. Our research question compared communication across different formats of text-based computer-mediated communication provided on the MedHelp.org health social networking environment.
methodsWe identified messages with nurturant support (emotional, esteem, and network) across three different computer-mediated communication formats (forums, journals, and notes) of an online support community for alcoholism using content analysis. Our sample consisted of 493 forum messages, 423 journal messages, and 1180 notes.
resultsNurturant support types occurred frequently among messages offering support (forum comments: 276/412 messages, 67.0%; journal posts: 65/88 messages, 74%; journal comments: 275/335 messages, 82.1%; and notes: 1002/1180 messages, 84.92%), but less often among messages requesting support. Of all the nurturing supports, emotional (ie, encouragement) appeared most frequently, with network and esteem support appearing in patterns of varying combinations. Members of the Alcoholism 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.
conclusionsThe computer-mediated communication 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.
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Registered trials
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