Determinants of Engagement in Face-to-Face and Online Patient Support Groups

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough peer-to-peer contact might empower patients in various ways, studies show that only a few patients actually engage in support groups.ObjectiveThe objective of our study was to explore factors that facilitate or impede engagement in face-to-face and online peer support, using the Theory of Planned Behavior.MethodsA questionnaire was completed by 679 patients being treated for arthritis, breast cancer, or fibromyalgia at two Dutch regional hospitals.ResultsOur results showed that only a minority of the patients engaged in organized forms of peer support. In total 10% (65/679) of the respondents had engaged in face-to-face meetings for patients in the past year. Only 4% (30/679) of the respondents had contact with peers via the Internet in the past year. Patients were more positive about face-to-face peer support than about online peer support (P < .001). In accordance with the Theory of Planned Behavior, having a more positive attitude (P < .01) and feeling more supported by people in the social environment (P < .001) increased the intention to participate in both kinds of peer support. In addition, perceived behavioral control (P = .01) influenced the intention to participate in online peer support. Nevertheless, the intention to engage in face-to-face and online peer support was only modestly predicted by the Theory of Planned Behavior variables (R 2 = .33 for face-to-face contact and R 2 = .26 for online contact).ConclusionAlthough Health 2.0 Internet technology has significantly increased opportunities for having contact with fellow patients, only a minority seem to be interested in organized forms of peer contact (either online or face-to-face). Patients seem somewhat more positive about face-to-face contact than about online contact.

Preferences for models of peer support in the digital era: A cross‐sectional survey of people with cancer

“…Only 13% of participants reported being receptive to using web‐based peer support. While these findings may be partly due to one third (34%) of participants not having internet access at home, they are similar to other studies examining peer support preferences among people with cancer and other chronic diseases . However, our findings are in sharp contrast with general population data revealing high and growing levels of internet use for communication, support, and health advice .…”

A New Dimension of Health Care: Systematic Review of the Uses, Benefits, and Limitations of Social Media for Health Communication

“…Social media can widen access to those who may not easily access health information via traditional methods, such as younger people, ethnic minorities, and lower socioeconomic groups [35,64,66,83,84,86,99,104,107,115]. An important aspect of using social media for health communication is that it can provide valuable peer, social, and emotional support for the general public [37,43,44,47,48,51,56,73,101,108,114] and patients [28,33,34,44,47,48,56,60,62,68,71,76,88,98,120]. For example, social media can aid health behavior change such as smoking cessation [53,73], and PatientsLikeMe enables patients to communicate with other patients and share information about health issues [28].…”

Social media use by patients with glaucoma: what can we learn?

“…The number of posters using forums is also relatively low given the number of patients with glaucoma. This raises questions about how many members are active and what determines the likelihood of patients engaging with and benefiting from the opportunities for peer support offered by social media . The most viewed video on YouTube, about trabeculectomy, had been watched over 110 thousand times, which implies a large audience, however the IGA forum, over a 1 year period, only had 323 posters and it is difficult to know to what extent there is a large body of ‘lurkers’ who benefit from the activity of the ‘posters’ .…”