What attracts patients with diabetes to an internet support group? A 21-month longitudinal website study

Aims To establish and evaluate a web-based educational and emotional resour ce for patients with diabetes and their family members. Methods A total of 47 365 user visits over a 21-month period to three inter net discussion groups about diabetes were tracked for user activity, charac teristics and level of satisfaction. Results The primary domains of users were the US (70%) and Canada (4%). Of all users, 7.55% posted messages, while 92.45% read messages posted by othe rs. The average length of use was 15 min 5 s. Forty-four per cent posted me ssages to the nutrition discussion, 38% posted messages to the motivational discussion, and 18% posted messages to the family discussion. The most com mon postings addressed nutrition (42%), the emotional impact of diabetes (1 8%), managing high or low blood glucose levels (10%), and complications (8% ). Respondents to the satisfaction survey were 64% female, 43% were insulin and 37% non-insulin users. Eighty-four per cent were older than 30 years, 34% had recently diagnosed diabetes and 32% had diabetes > 10 years. Forty- three per cent visited more than three times. Seventy-nine per cent of all respondents rated participation in the chat as having a positive effect on coping with diabetes. Conclusions A professionally moderated internet discussion group is activel y visited by a broad base of patients and families, and appears to be a use ful strategy for engaging patients with chronic disease for emotional suppo rt and information exchange.