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Cancer Patients Benefit From Web Sites
By Jeff Neu
According to the American
Cancer Society, breast cancer affects more than 200,000 women
each year in North America, making it the most prevalent cancer
for women and the second-leading cause of cancer death in the
United States. Many of these women now turn to the Internet to
seek information and support. Contrary to the belief that women
grow depressed and lonely from spending time on these sites, a
new study by a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher found
visiting these sites provides a number of psychosocial benefits
for women.
“We found that these women, among other
things, regain optimism, develop coping mechanisms, and improve
their overall mood from these sites,” said Shelly Rodgers,
assistant journalism professor at MU, who conducted the study
with University of Hawaii
assistant marketing professor Qimei Chen. “These findings
suggest that the vast amount of knowledge exchanged and stored
in the online health community should be fully explored, not only
to foster learning from the patients' end, but also from the health
practitioners' viewpoint.”
Rodgers and Chen analyzed the content of 33,200
postings from an online breast cancer bulletin board, or discussion
board, and also examined “life stories” of 100 women
randomly selected from the board. The discussion board, sponsored
by a non-profit organization, was viewed during October 2004.
October is Breast Cancer
Awareness Month. The 100 women represented 35 different states
and three countries (United States, Canada and the United Kingdom).
The researchers found more than half of the
women benefited from getting information from the site, while
40 percent benefited from providing information to other site
members. Rodgers and Chen said that 47 percent benefited from
seeking social support, whereas 56 percent benefited from giving
social support. They also found the percentage of women who felt
pessimistic about the breast cancer had dramatically decreased
to 7 percent.
“As the communal aspect of the Internet
continues to grow, it will become critically important to understand
who uses online communities and what psychological benefits individuals
gain from online support groups,” Rodgers said. “Health
practitioners also may benefit from their own participations in
online breast cancer communities to more fully understand the
problems and struggles that women face with this disease.”
Rodgers recently submitted her study, Internet
Community Group Participation: Psychosocial Benefits for Women
with Breast Cancer, to the Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communication.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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