The Social Side of Health Care
By Doug Joubert
As the dog days of summer start to wind down, I thought it might be a good time to review a recent report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project (Pew Internet). In addition, I would like to highlight some tips for navigating the Pew datasets.
In May, the Pew Internet released “The Social Life of Health Information 2011” a report that focuses on mobile health, the health information divide, and peer-to-peer healthcare. For this post, I will focus on the sections of the report that concentrate on the use of social media. This report highlights two factors that are influencing the way patients and caregivers are using social media: (1) the increasing availability of online tools that facilitate sharing, and (2) the strong motivation for people living with chronic conditions, to develop non-traditional support networks (Fox, 2011a) .
Finding Health Information
Recent data from the Pew demonstrate that increasingly people are turning to the Internet to obtain health information (Fox, 2011a) . When surveyed in 2010, 80% of respondents that used the Internet reported looking online for health information (Fox, 2011a) . Additionally, 34 % of respondents went to an online news group, blog, or website to hear about someone else’s experience with a health or medical issue (Fox, 2011a) . In terms of online activities related to seeking health information, mobile users were more likely than non-mobile users to use social media to find, interact, and share health information (Fox, 2011a) . Because of these trends, there is an increasing expectation that users will have access to the information that they need, when they need it, and how they need it.
Sharing Health Information
As of September 2010 11% of all adults that use social networking sites (SNS) reported following health related updates (Fox, 2011b). Additionally, 15% of participants received health information from a SNS, and 14% raised money for a health related cause on a SNS (Fox, 2011b) . Patients are not the only group of healthcare consumers using social media for finding, exchanging, and collaborating with health information. Individuals caring for loved ones are much more likely to use social media for seeking and sharing health information and for support (Fox, 2011b) . In some cases, patients might not have direct access to the Internet. This might explain why caregivers are functioning as online surrogates for patients without Internet access. The Pew refers to this type of Internet access as “second degree” access. Given this, caregivers can serve as an access point to the Internet, and represent an opportunity for the engagement of users who do not have access to the Internet (Fox, 2011c) .
Melinda Blau and Karen L. Fingerman developed the term consequential strangers to describe the unique relationships that develop between patients and caregivers, many of who are connected online (Blau & Fingerman, 2009). For more information about the supportive role of SNS with caregivers, please check out the Consequential Strangers blog by Melinda Blau, or visit her Facebook page.
So, What Does This All Mean?
Susannah Fox highlighted a number of important trends from this report, when she spoke at the National Institutes of Health on August 2, 2011. When introducing Susannah, Kelli Marciel (NIH Office of Disease Prevention) stressed the importance of questioning, “what we think we know,” about the use of social media in health.
The ways in which people find, collaborate, and share information about their health is changing. A driving factor in this change is the Internet. According to the Pew, three-quarters of U.S. adults use the Internet (Fox, 2011c) . This number is more dramatic when you look at 2000 – 2010 trend data from the Pew (figure 1).
Figure 1: Change in Internet Use 2000 – 2010.
According to Fox, the increased access to the Internet and the availability of social media tools are “inviting users to participate more fully in the online world” (Fox, 2011c) . As demonstrated by the findings from the Pew, this level of engagement is also extending to the domain of healthcare. In particular, these actions are driven by the confluence of two powerful forces: (1) the “ancient instinct to share and seek advice,” and (2) the “newfound ability to find, share, and collaborate at Internet speeds (Fox, 2011c) .” If you are interested in learning more about this talk, the NIH has archived the Mind the Gap talk that Susannah gave in August.
As Kristen Purcell (Pew Internet) notes, the way in which we communicate with our users is changing. We can no longer expect our users to interact with us using traditional communication channels. We need to use social networking tools to create opportunities to interact with them in “their space,” and become nodes in “their networks.”
I would love to start an online conversation about the ways in which social media and mobile are transforming the way in which users find, share, and collaborate with health information. To start the dialogue, please leave a comment below, or reach out to me via email.
References and Resources
Fox, S. (2011c). Mind the Gap: Peer-to-peer Healthcare, 2011 The Social Life of Health Information. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
Flickr Image – Creative Commons- http://www.flickr.com/photos/7156988@N04/5317886665/in/pool-creative_commons-_free_pictures
Doug Joubert is a Technical Librarian with the National Institutes of Health, The NIH Library. His full office acronym is OD/OM/ORS/DLS/IAB |
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