Social networks and health practices: influence of a diabetes online community on adherence to treatment.

Larissa de Siqueira Fernandes,Claudia Affonso Silva Araujo,Camila Calado

doi:10.1590/1413-812320182310.14122018

Larissa de Siqueira Fernandes, Claudia Affonso Silva Araujo + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-812320182310.14122018

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Abstract

This study aims to understand how online communities can contribute to increasing the adherence of chronic patients to the treatment prescribed by the physician in Brazil. For this purpose, we applied the netnography method to analyze the community Diabetes: vivendo e aprendendo - troca de informações (free translation: "Diabetes: living and learning - information exchange"), considering the dimensions of adherence proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a theoretical framework. The analysis shows the influence of cyberculture on health and disease processes, resulting in changes in physician-patient relationships, patient empowerment, and individual management of own chronic condition. The results also showed a positive influence of the interactions established in the community on the multidimensional factors of the adherence model proposed by the WHO1, also leading to the possibility of including a sixth related to connectivity. The primary motivations identified for community participation were access to information on the disease and treatment, the sharing of experiences and social support. Thus, the proposition of health policies that help chronic patients meet these needs tends to contribute to increased adherence to treatment.

Highlights

The changes that information and communication technologies have made in the way of conceiving health and disease processes, in the doctor-patient relationship, how patients address the disease, in the role of the patient in the self-management of own illness and in the patients’ new ways of socializing with other patients and with the health system[1,2,3,4] are evident.Moreira and Pestana[5] emphasize that online patient communities contribute to the promotion of greater health literacy and are “the new era of empowerment of patients and a patient-centered health system”
We aim to (i) identify the factors that affect adherence of patients with chronic diseases, especially people with diabetes, to the treatment prescribed by the physician; (ii) understand what people with diabetes are seeking when engaging in an online health community; and, based on this understanding, (iii) identify the health system’s opportunities for action to increase adherence of these patients to treatment
The option to analyze the online community with a focus on diabetes is justified by the fact that this disease is one of the four leading causes of deaths due to chronic disease in Brazil[26], that there is a shortage of studies on the adherence of diabetic patients in developing countries and of World Health Organization (WHO)’s prognosis that, in 2025, the highest prevalence of this disease will occur in those countries[9]

Summary

Introduction

The empowerment process can contribute to the re-signification of the natural social relationships among the stakeholders of the health system, allowing for a review of roles and meanings, and for greater citizenship in health, with greater social and political participation of patients[6]. This phenomenon is part of the broader context of possibilities for the Internet to enhance participation, interactive communication, civic engagement, information provision and democratization[7]. Netnography method was adopted, analyzing for two months the community Diabetes: living and learning – Information exchange. (free translation from the Portuguese)

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