ANALYSIS OF ONLINE INFORMATION ON SUPPORT GROUP MEETINGS FOR CROHN’S DISEASE PATIENTS

Abstract

Background In 2018, the American College of Gastroenterology publishedguidelines for Crohn's disease management that emphasizedthe importance of addressing the patient's quality of life (QOL).Due to the unique challenges that they face, afficted patientsand their families benefit from support groups that providepsychosocial support. Hospitals have traditionally preferred in-person support group meetings, but there has recently been agreat increase in the need for online meetings amidst theCOVID-19 pandemic. With increasing usage of the Internet forhealth advice and assistance, it is important to assess theavailability of information on support groups online. Methods Two independent investigators queried the terms 'Crohn'ssupport group' using the Google search engine. The first 100websites were analyzed and categorized into eitherinformational websites (IW) or professional websites (PW)depending on their association. The mode of support groupmeetings was categorized as either online or in-person.Websites that included outdated events, were inaccessible, didnot specify the mode of meeting, required additional contact, orwere irrelevant were excluded. Statistical analyses wereperformed using the chi-squared test of independence withsignificance level at p<0.05. Results A total of 56 websites (33 IW, 23 PW) met our inclusion criteria.IW offered online meetings more often than PW (60.6% and39.1%, respectively; p=0.11). In contrast, PW offered in-personmeetings more often than IW (73.9% and 69.7%, respectively;p=0.73). Excluded websites (30 IW, 14 PW) were furtheranalyzed for their reason for elimination. For IW, the mostfrequent causes of exclusion in descending order were asfollows: irrelevance (30.0%), outdated (26.7%), inaccessible(20.0%), did not specify the mode of meeting (13.3%), andredirected for further information (10.0%). Listing of outdatedsessions was the most common reason for exclusion of PW fromthe study (57.1%), and the proportion was significantly higherthan IW (26.7%) (p=0.01). Conclusion Crohn's disease patients face unique challenges that requirespecial attention. Support groups are an important means ofalleviating stress, depression, and anxiety in order to improvetheir QOL. Yet, due to the COVID-19 social distancing policies,many are refrained from participating in in-person sessions.This study illustrates that more online support group meetingsare needed and that professional websites should improve onmaking regular updates for future meeting sessions.