A study of informational support exchanges in MedHelp Alcoholism community

Abstract

E-patients searching for online health information may seek support from the peers in health social media platforms especially when they cannot find the relevant information from authoritative Web sites. Many health social media sites have different 'architectural elements' to support the user communication. We seek to understand the relationship between social support and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) formats by comparing the social support types exchanged across multiple CMC formats (forums, journals, and notes) within the same community using descriptive content analysis on three months of data from MedHelp Alcoholism support community to find informational support (i.e. advice, opinions, and personal experiences, etc.). Forums are used for asking general questions related to Alcoholism. Notes are used for maintaining relationships rather than the main source for seeking information. Journal comments are similar to notes, which might indicate that journal readers consider the author as a friend. These descriptive results suggest that users may be initially attracted to the community forums for information seeking yet continue to engage in the online community due to relationships strengthened through journal or note formats. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.