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Cancer Survival Rates linked to types of
Social Support Content found in Online
Cancer Support Communities
Newswise — Online support
communities for high survival rate cancers
contain a greater amount of emotional
support content than online support
communities for cancers with low survival
rates, according to a new study from the
University of Michigan Health System and the
VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
The researchers also found
that support communities for low survival
rate cancers contain a greater amount of
informational support content than online
support communities for high survival rate
cancers.
“Online communities have
become an important resource for individuals
seeking emotional and informational social
support related to cancer,” says senior
author Caroline Richardson, M.D., assistant
professor in the Department of Family
Medicine at the University of Michigan
Health System.
The study—led by Lorraine
Buis, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow
at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare
System—assessed differences in emotional and
informational social support content in
online communities for cancers with high and
low survival rates.
The researchers also found
that, overall, emotional support was more
prevalent than informational support across
all communities and all types of cancers.
Both emotional and
informational support is widely available
within online communities for cancer, but
not all of these sites are created equally,
Buis notes.
“When primary care providers
refer individuals to online communities for
support, they should be aware that there
might be differing amounts of support based
on the survival rare of a particular
cancer,” she says. Buis also explains that
not only are such online communities for
patients, “but they help family and friends
cope with the struggles that cancer
presents.”
Until Richardson’s and Buis’s
most recent study, there had been no
previous research on the influence of
patients’ cancer survival rates on social
support content within online support
communities for cancer.
Participants in this study
were all reviewed under the same time
period, were online community members who
participated in online support communities
for four different types of cancer—lung
cancer, pancreatic cancer, thyroid cancer
and melanoma—and participated in eight
different online communities in the
investigation.
The study is being presented
this week at the annual meeting of the North
American Primary Care Research Group. In
addition to Buis and Richardson, Pamela S.
Whitten, Ph.D., of Michigan State University
also was an author of the study.
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