¿De qué se habla en los foros de Internet para problemas de salud?: análisis de contenido en función de la enfermedad y el sexo

• Autores: Raquel Suriá Martínez, Marina Beléndez Vázquez
• Localización: Acción psicológica, ISSN 1578-908X, Vol. 7, Nº. 1, 2010 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Psicología e internet), págs. 41-51
• Idioma: español
• DOI: 10.5944/ap.7.1.206
• Títulos paralelos:
  • What are people talking about on health-related internet forums?: content analysis by illness and gender
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen
  • español

    En los últimos años, Internet ha posibilitado la aparición y consolidación de nuevas formas de comunicación interpersonal. Entre ellas destaca la establecida entre los participantes en los foros de discusión sobre problemas relacionados con la salud. Una de las líneas de investigación más fructíferas se dirige al análisis del contenido de los mensajes intercambiados entre los participantes. El presente estudio analiza la frecuencia de los tópicos intercambiados en las contribuciones de los usuarios de foros de discusión para problemas de salud en función del sexo y de la categoría diagnóstica. Se recopilaron 756 mensajes de cuatro foros relacionados con problemas de salud (diabetes, fibromialgia, esclerosis y asma). Los mensajes se analizaron mediante un código que incluyó 15 categorías de análisis agrupadas en cuatro dimensiones: intercambio de apoyo social, enfermedad y tratamiento, aspectos interpersonales y emociones. Los resultados indican que las referencias a apoyo informativo y práctico eran más frecuentes en el foro de diabetes. Las expresiones de emociones positivas (optimismo y gratitud) se encontraban más en el foro de fibromialgia. Las diferencias en la frecuencia de los temas de los mensajes en función del sexo aparecen sólo en algunos tópicos y, únicamente, en los foros de algunas enfermedades.

  • English

    In recent years, Internet has made possible the emergence and consolidation of a new form of interpersonal communication such as the discussion among members of health related bulletin boards or discussion forums. One of the more fruitful research work is aimed to analyze the content of the exchanged messages among participants.

    The present work analyzes the frequency of the topics in the messages that are exchanged among users of internet discussion forums for health problems by sex and illness. A total of 756 postings of participants in four Spanish-speaking internet bulletin boards were analyzed (diabetes, fibromyalgia, sclerosis and asthma). Each posting was analyzed for the presence or absence of 15 coding categories subsumed under four broad categories (social support, illness and treatment issues, interpersonal issues and expression of emotions). Postings regarding giving informational support and instrumental support were more frequent at diabetes discussion board. Expressions of positive emotions (optimism and gratitude) were predominately found on fibromyalgia boards. Differences by sex were only found in some categories and in some forums.

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