Sayaka Sugimoto*, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Track: Research Presentation Topic: Building virtual communities and social networking applications for patients and consumers Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2012-09-10

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Background: 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.

Objective: The present study aims to contribute to filling those knowledge gaps by exploring three research questions. 1) What kinds of support are requested/given among users of a depression online support group? 2) What are the characteristics of users who request/give a specific type of support? 3) Are there any correlations between user characteristics and types of support they request or give?

Methods: First, a sample of 986 posts was selected systematically from nine discussion forums on a depression online support group (Depression Centre4.0: http://www.depressioncenter.net). Demographic and clinical information of the users who made those posts were recorded. Second, qualitative content analysis is going to be conducted to examine the types of support being requested or given through those posts. Third, a set of statistical analyses is going to be conducted to examine the correlations between user characteristics and their patterns of use.

Results & Conclusion: This is a “Research in Progress”. The data collection was completed in February 1, 2010, and the data analysis (both content analysis and statistical analysis) is going to be completed in April 15, 2012. This research will contribute to the fields of consumer health informatics by providing empirical evidence about who use online support groups, and what and how users benefit from participating in those groups. The findings from this research will also provide valuable insight on how different users benefit from support groups differently.