Social networking: An analysis of health-related social support messages posted in a Facebook group for Kashmiri women

Abstract

The support groups within social networking sites such as Facebook have become a popular platform for various kinds of conversation and social support including health, especially among women. The aim of this study was to explore and analyze the types of health-related social support messages posted in a month by Kashmiri women in a Facebook group and the most common health topics for which social support was sought. A total of 302 health-related posts were selected for analysis. The results revealed that of various health-related social support posts in the group, informational support messages were posted more frequently and most requested information was related to pregnancy.

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Keywords:

• Computer-mediated communication
• India
• internet and health
• Kashmir
• social support
• women
• women’s health

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Dr. Syed Aafiyah, the founder and administrator of Wasitoon Kashmiri Ladies group. The authors did not receive any funding to conduct this study.

Ethical approval

The study was conducted in strict adherence to international ethical standards for social media research. The university had not established specific ethical guidelines for social media research. The researchers maintained a non-intrusive approach, with no direct interaction with the group members. The posts analyzed were publicly available to all members of the group. Human participants were not directly involved at any stage of the study and their privacy was ensured. The permission to collect and share data from the group was obtained from the group’s founder and admin. To protect the identity and confidentiality of the participants, the usernames of the identified posts were removed before storing them. All tables and contents presented in the study were created by the authors.

Author contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Arbeena and Mohd Asif; data collection: Arbeena; analysis and interpretation of results: Arbeena, Mohd Asif; draft manuscript preparation: Arbeena; final editing and reviewing: Arbeena, Mohd Asif. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Arbeena

Arbeena is a Doctoral Scholar in Mass Communication and Journalism, Institute of Kashmir Studies, University of Kashmir, India. Her research interest areas include Online Health Communication, Online Health Information Seeking, Digital Media and Gender, Digital health technologies.

Mohd Asif

Mohd Asif is a Doctoral Scholar in Mass Communication and Journalism, Institute of Kashmir Studies, University of Kashmir, India. His research interest areas include Masculinity studies, Gender and Media, Digital Media.