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Experience of online peer support for alopecia
Author(s) -
Iliffe L.L.,
Thompson A.R.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.304
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1365-2133
pISSN - 0007-0963
DOI - 10.1111/bjd.18498
Subject(s) - feeling , support group , set (abstract data type) , peer support , psychology , online community , social media , interpretative phenomenological analysis , social psychology , medicine , internet privacy , qualitative research , psychiatry , sociology , world wide web , computer science , social science , programming language
Summary Patients and their family members can find it helpful to share their stories with fellow sufferers. Online groups are particularly useful for those who are shy or self‐conscious about how they look. Alopecia UK is a support group for people experiencing hair loss. Their website links to a monitored Facebook group restricted to members. There is not much research into the benefits of online support for skin conditions, so these psychologists from Sheffield in the UK interviewed 12 people who had been helped by the Alopecia UK Facebook group. The usual method for this type of research is “content analysis” in which patient interviews are analysed to identify themes. These researchers used “interpretative phenomenological analysis”. First, they asked participants for a screenshot of a post they had found particularly helpful. Then they asked a set of questions about their experience with the website and with the screenshot. Finally, they analysed the interviews to look for themes expressed both by individuals and by the group. The participants, all women, described how the online forum enabled them to let go of feelings of misery and unattractiveness, to share practical tips about dealing with their appearance, to feel less alone and more normal and to become more accepting of their appearance and more confident socially. A few reported unhelpful comments and inaccurate advice. The study suggests that online peer support can encourage sufferers to adjust to chronic (long‐term) conditions by connecting them within a safe and private community. Platforms like this could be used in combination with other therapies.