| Description |
People living with chronic diseases are increasingly utilizing the internet for healthrelated reasons. The existence of Online Health Communities (OHCs) allows for chronic patients to easily connect with similarly diagnosed patients and keep track of medical records. The purpose of this thesis is to examine chronic patient psychosocial needs on OHCs and to determine how these needs are being fulfilled through peer support. More specifically, we will analyze discussion board data collected from the largest online breast cancer community: Breastcancer.org. From previous research, we identified five main types of patient needs and measured the impact of social support by tracking a patient's emotional changes before and after receiving said support. Social support was received through replies to the original post and could be classified as matched, unmatched, or unsought depending on the support's alignment with the need. We then analyzed their impact on three key patient emotions - happiness, anger and fear. Results from our analyses showed that in several scenarios, a patient's fear and anger levels decreased while happiness increased after receiving support - a desirous outcome. Yet, there were some conditions where patients' happiness did not change or their fear and anger did not decrease. These results suggest that it is important to pay attention to the dynamics between patient need and OHC support in order to understand how OHCs can best serve chronic patients. |
