Patients with type 2 diabetes belonging to online support groups have poorer health

Maybe people with poorer health are more likely to belong to online support groups, to try to get health or emotional support.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/upf--pwt031920.php

News Release 19-Mar-2020
Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona

Diabetes is a disease that affects people's lives more in the long term and requires emotional support and information. It is increasingly common for people with diabetes to participate in digital communities and seek help in so-called OSGs (online support groups) to share experiences and glean information. This social phenomenon has been little studied.

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Analysis of the study data has shown that "people with diabetes who participate in these groups generally have worse health than those who do not and, in addition, they also have more disease-related complications (neuropathy, nephropathy, etc.)", says Herrero, who plans to continue in the course of her doctoral studies at the Department of Communication at UPF with this line of research taking the role of health personnel and technologies available to patients into account.

The results indicate that participants in these forums present lower levels of disease management, and more disease-related health complications. So far, this connection is not statistically significant for users with type 1 diabetes, but is strong for users with type 2 diabetes, the authors suggest in their article.

The findings of this research are very important because people with diabetes, as occurs with other diseases, look to the Internet and social networks for information and support, and it may be that, contrary to what they might believe, the information they find there may not be sufficiently reliable and their consultation could be counterproductive for their health.