Variation in health blog features and elements by gender, occupation, and perspective

Healthy eating blog readership: A cross-sectional survey in Australian adults

AIMS

To investigate whether members of the public read blogs for the purpose of accessing healthy eating information; examine demographic predictors of healthy eating blog readership, specifically education, gender, age, body mass index, and residential location; and explore the reasons for reading, and not reading, healthy eating blogs.

METHODS

This study used a cross-sectional online self-reported survey design collected over three time points (round 1: December 2017-March 2018, round 2: August 2018-December 2018, round 3: December 2021-March 2022). The total sample of participants comprised of 238 respondents with a mean age of 46 years old, who mostly reported gender as female (82%), being educated with a university degree (69%), and predominantly resided in urban and city areas (84%).

RESULTS

Fifty-one percent of respondents reported reading healthy eating blogs, suggesting that consumers were proactively seeking healthy eating information through this avenue. Participants who identified as female were 3.2 times more likely to read healthy eating blogs. Commonly, healthy eating blogs were read to receive practical information that aligned with current food choices. The main reason participants reported not reading healthy eating blogs was not thinking about using them (29%).

CONCLUSIONS

Understanding who is seeking healthy eating information through blogs, and their reasons doing so, is important to continue research into the potential effectiveness of blogs as a platform to communicate healthy eating and nutrition messages. This study provides direction for further investigation into how dietetics professionals could effectively use blogs to disseminate healthy eating information and positively influence consumer food choices and dietary intake.

Conflict of interest and funding in health communication on social media: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

To synthesise the available evidence on the reporting of conflicts of interest (COI) by individuals posting health messages on social media, and on the reporting of funding sources of studies cited in health messages on social media.

DATA SOURCES

MEDLINE (OVID) (2005-March 2022), Embase (2005-March 2022) and Google Scholar (2005-August 2022), supplemented with a review of reference lists and forward citation tracking.

DESIGN

Reviewers selected eligible studies and abstracted data in duplicate and independently. We appraised the quality of the included studies using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. We summarised the results in both narrative and tabular formats. We followed the PRISMA 2020 checklist for reporting our study.

RESULTS

Of a total of 16 645 retrieved citations, we included 17 eligible studies. The frequency of reporting of conflicts of interest varied between 0% and 60%, but it was mostly low. In addition, a significant proportion, ranging between 15% and 80%, of healthcare professionals using social media have financial relationships with industry. However, three studies assessed the proportion of conflicts of interest of physicians identified through Open Payment Database but not reported by the authors. It was found that 98.7-100% of these relationships with industry are not reported when communicating health-related information. Also, two studies showed that there is evidence of a potential association between COI and the content of posting. No data was found on the reporting of funding sources of studies cited in health messages on social media.

CONCLUSIONS

While a significant proportion of healthcare professionals using social media have financial relationships with industry, lack of reporting on COI and undisclosed COI are common. We did not find studies on the reporting of funding sources of studies cited in health messages on social media.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.5jyl8jj4rg2w/v1.

Impact of Medical Blog Reading and Information Presentation on Readers' Preventative Health Intentions: Mixed Methods, Multistudy Investigation

Background

Medical blogs have become valuable information sources for patients and caregivers. Most research has focused on patients’ creation of blogs as therapy. But we know less about how these blogs affect their readers and what format of information influences readers to take preventative health actions.

Objective

This study aimed to identify how reading patient medical blogs influences readers’ perceived health risk and their intentions to engage in preventative health actions. Further, we aimed to examine the format of the medical blog and the reader’s response.

Methods

We surveyed 99 university participants and a general-population, online panel of 167 participants. Both studies randomly assigned participants to conditions and measured blog evaluation, intentions for preventative health action, and evaluation of health risk and beliefs, and allowed open-ended comments. The second study used a different sample and added a control condition. A third study used a convenience sample of blog readers to evaluate the link between reading medical blogs and taking preventative health action.

Results

Across 3 studies, participants indicated a desire to take future preventative health action after reading patient blogs. Studies 1 and 2 used experimental scenario-based designs, while Study 3 employed a qualitative design with real blog readers. The 2 experimental studies showed that the type of blog impacted intentions to engage in future preventative health actions (Study 1: F_2,96=6.08, P=.003; Study 2: F_3,166=2.59, P=.06), with a statistical blog being most effective in both studies and a personal narrative blog showing similar effectiveness in Study 2, contrary to some prior research. The readers’ perceptions of their own health risk did not impact the relationship between the blog type and health intentions. In contrast, in one study, participants’ judgments about the barriers they might face to accessing care improved the fit of the model (F_2,95=13.57, P<.001). In Study 3’s sample of medical blog readers, 53% (24/45) reported taking preventative health action after reading a health blog, including performing a self-check, asking a doctor about their health risk, or requesting a screening test. Additionally, these readers expressed that they read the blogs to follow the author (patient) and to learn general health information. All studies demonstrated the blogs were somewhat sad and emotional but also informative and well-written. They noted that the blogs made them appreciate life more and motivated them to consider taking some action regarding their health. 

Conclusions

Reading patient blogs influences intentions to take future health actions. However, blog formats show different efficacy, and the readers’ disease risk perceptions do not. Physicians, medical practitioners, and health organizations may find it useful to curate or promote selected medical blogs to influence patient behavior.

Cyberframing Cancer: An Exploratory Investigation of Valenced Cybercoping on Cancer Blogs

Although scholarship on coping with cancer implies many ways that coping is communicative, the discursive features of coping have been understudied. The purpose of the present investigation was to theorize the content of cancer blogs, a form of cybercoping, by examining valenced coping-relevant frames that bloggers use to describe their experiences with cancer. This research is both theoretically and methodologically innovative. Theoretically, we advance the concept of cyberframing by connecting the rather disconnected literatures on coping and framing and by studying this topic from a communication perspective. Methodologically, this is one of the few studies of coping with cancer that has used naturally occurring communication data to its advantage. A content analysis of cancer blog entries (N = 194) indicated that more than 90% of cancer blog posts were embedded in a valenced frame. The frames were either negative, positive, or balanced; balanced frames varied in the intensity of the valence. The most common frames were positive and balanced with low affect.

Depression Narratives in Blogs: A Collaborative Quest for Coherence

People with depression often suffer from severe social seclusion, and the lack of an agreed upon etiology for depression makes it difficult to satisfactorily narrate and "ritually control" it. Focusing on blogs by women with major depression, I delineate the ways in which bloggers publicly express and collaboratively reconstruct their depression narratives. Specifically, using thematic analysis, I argue that depression blogs uniquely bridge between the seclusion that characterizes depression and the exposure offered in blogs, and thus offer people a rare opportunity to publicly share very intimate depression narratives, form communal bonds with their readers, and collaboratively revise their narratives. Depression blogs are also shown to function as "narrative sandboxes"-protected spaces in which bloggers can temporarily and experimentally add or remove different sections from their illness narratives, assess the compatibility of different cultural frameworks, and interchangeably use various metaphors, in an attempt to satisfactorily explain depression.

An Exploratory Analysis of Child Feeding Beliefs and Behaviors Included in Food Blogs Written by Mothers of Preschool-Aged Children

OBJECTIVE

This study analyzed child feeding beliefs and behaviors, types of recipes, and their associations in blogs focused on child feeding.

DESIGN

The authors selected 13 blogs using purposive snowball sampling, from which 158 blog posts were sampled and coded using directed qualitative content analysis.

VARIABLES MEASURED

Child feeding beliefs and behaviors and types of recipes were coded using schemes developed from existing literature.

ANALYSIS

Code frequencies were calculated. Chi-square tests for independence examined associations between child feeding and recipe codes. Bonferroni corrections were applied: P < .05/(n tests).

RESULTS

Child feeding beliefs and behaviors were coded in 78% and 49% of posts, respectively. Beliefs about children's food preferences (48% of posts) and involving children in food preparation (27% of posts) were the most frequent codes. Recipes were included in 66% of posts. Most recipes were for mixed dishes (32% of recipes), followed by sweets and desserts (19% of recipes). Vegetable recipes were more likely in posts that included behavior encouraging balance and variety (χ2 [1, n = 104] = 18.54; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Blog posts contained information that may influence readers' child feeding practices. Future research should explore how mothers use blogs to learn about child feeding.

Expanding the concept of significant choice through consideration of health literacy during crises

Nilsen defined the concept of the ethic of significant as "choice making that is voluntary, free from physical or mental coercion . . . based on all the information available when the decision must be made." This study highlights the importance of speakers in crisis situations not only meeting the ethical stipulations of significant choice but also taking into consideration the health literacy of their audience. Health literacy is defined as the ability of individuals to gather, interpret, and understand information regarding health matters. To advance this claim, a case study involving a food recall is examined. Television news coverage was analyzed to observe the importance of both significant choice and health literacy in such public communication. The findings, from the standpoint of significant choice and health literacy, indicate that the messages disseminated during this crisis failed to account for a notable portion of the audience. From a practical standpoint this study asserts that clear and open communication cannot be considered only from the perspective of the party sending the message. Rather, careful consideration of the audience's ability to comprehend and act on the information is equally important.

Genetics blogs as a public health tool: assessing credibility and influence

The Internet is becoming an important source of information about genetics and holds promise for public health applications. However, the public has concerns about the credibility of online genetics information. We conducted a content analysis of genetics blogs (n = 94). Specifically, we assessed the prevalence of various genetics-related topics and perceived credibility indicators. The relationship between content indicators, credibility indicators, and blog influence, measured as links between blogs, was evaluated. Coverage of issues related to health or self-knowledge (31%) and life science (26%) was most common among genetics blogs. In terms of credibility indicators, most blogs disclosed authors' full names (81%) and biographical information (67%). Many blog authors reported having genetics (67%) or life science expertise (59%). However, only 7% of blogs were affiliated with educational or medical institutions. Overall, blogs that focused on ancestry, that had authors with life science expertise, and that posted more frequently tended to be more influential. Findings suggest that life scientists and those who blog frequently may figure more centrally in shaping the genetics information available to the public via blogs. There is room for institutions that are likely to be perceived as credible sources of genetics information to assume a greater presence through blogs.