Understanding Online Health Groups for Depression: Social Network and Linguistic Perspectives.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mental health problems have become increasingly prevalent in the past decade. With the advance of Web 2.0 technologies, social media present a novel platform for Web users to form online health groups. Members of online health groups discuss health-related issues and mutually help one another by anonymously revealing their mental conditions, sharing personal experiences, exchanging health information, and providing suggestions and support. The conversations in online health groups contain valuable information to facilitate the understanding of their mutual help behaviors and their mental health problems.

Objective

We aimed to characterize the conversations in a major online health group for major depressive disorder (MDD) patients in a popular Chinese social media

SUBMITTER: Xu R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4807247 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature