Hierarchies of knowledge in responses to messages of newbies in online health support groups

IF 2.9 2区医学 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH Patient Education and Counseling Pub Date : 2025-01-18 DOI:10.1016/j.pec.2025.108661

Carolina Figueras Bates , Barbara De Cock

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Abstract

Objectives

To determine how hierarchies of knowledge are established in two online health forums: one for recovery from eating disorders and the other for diabetes.

Methods

28 threads, with a total of 55,462 words were collected from the eating disorders (ED) forum. From the diabetes (D) forum, 18 threads were extracted, with a total of 51,397 words.

We performed a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the structures and mechanisms to convey experiential knowledge and to deliver advice.

Results

The frequency of strategies such as providing facts about the illness, sharing personal stories and using medical terminology was higher in the diabetes forum than in the eating disorder forum. In the category of providing advice, ED and D responders behaved as experts and formulated advice in an authoritative way by resorting to imperatives and deontics of obligation.

Conclusion

In both fora, epistemic and emotional experiences are presented. The goal in each site is the creation of shared understanding among their members. Experiential knowledge is highly personal, and it is never depicted as antagonistic to medical expertise.

Practice Implications

Experiential knowledge is complex and rich and can complement medical expertise in the treatment of long-term and/or chronic health conditions.

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来源期刊

Patient Education and Counseling 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

5.60

自引率

11.40%

发文量

384

审稿时长

46 days

期刊介绍： Patient Education and Counseling is an interdisciplinary, international journal for patient education and health promotion researchers, managers and clinicians. The journal seeks to explore and elucidate the educational, counseling and communication models in health care. Its aim is to provide a forum for fundamental as well as applied research, and to promote the study of organizational issues involved with the delivery of patient education, counseling, health promotion services and training models in improving communication between providers and patients.