“Can Anyone Tell Me…”. Online Health Communities in Diabetes Self-Management in Poland and Italy

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the debate about the role of Online Health Communities (OHCs) in the healthcare system by concentrating on the kind of information sought and shared by their members. The paper focuses on OHCs for diabetes and discusses the main findings of a qualitative study conducted in Italy and Poland. The Uses and Gratifications approach informed the study, while content analysis was used to perform the analysis. The findings show that OHCs’ role goes beyond information and emotional support, which relies on expertise by experience. Indeed, the lack of basic knowledge constituting the essential diabetes literacy for self-management was partially compensated by peer exchange in the OHCs. This raises at least two problems: quality and reliability of the information shared online, and consequences in terms of the equity that a healthcare system provides.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, AA, upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The remaining posts concerned the other topics important for diabetics: diet, sports and emotional states. They also included so-called phatic posts, serving only in maintaining contact (Bizzotto et al., 2022). It needs to be noted, however, that some Facebook groups were strictly moderated and all the posts had to be approved by admins/moderators, which might, in turn, create a potential bias in the data (some posts might have been filtered out and excluded from the analysis).

2. In both countries the representatives of the companies producing the devices for diabetes treatment are engaged in initial training, but there are not enough educators.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.