Self-help management of patients undergoing chemotherapy: analysis of the online forum of the women’s self-help association against cancer

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine threads on chemotherapy in the largest German self-help forum regarding content and emotions. Methods: All threads on the subject of chemotherapy that were published by February 6th, 2022 were included in the category “drug therapy”. A total of 50 threads were analyzed. A quantitative analysis was carried out with regard to content, emotions, number of replies, number of hits, duration of the conversation, duration of access in days, number density of replies, and hits per day. Results: 16 threads are about side effects and in 18 threads, the emotion is fear. Threads in which the emotion fear was expressed have the highest number of replies at 3367. Shared therapy successes are posted with pleasure and achieved a higher mean value for the duration of conversation with 1374.25 days. Conclusion: An online self-help forum is a very important source of psychosocial support for patients undergoing chemotherapy.