A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums
Objective: To identify and describe the activities performed by online support community moderators. Methods: A total of 790 messages were downloaded for analysis. Messages were written by 59 moderators from 6 forums that represent a diverse range of conditions (arthritis, complex regional pain syn...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46959/ |
| _version_ | 1848797436817965056 |
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| author | Smedley, Richard M. Coulson, Neil S. |
| author_facet | Smedley, Richard M. Coulson, Neil S. |
| author_sort | Smedley, Richard M. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Objective: To identify and describe the activities performed by online support community moderators.
Methods: A total of 790 messages were downloaded for analysis. Messages were written by 59 moderators from 6 forums that represent a diverse range of conditions (arthritis, complex regional pain syndrome, Crohn’s disease, depression, diabetes and Huntington’s disease).
Results:Thematic analysis revealed four themes: supportive tasks supportive tasks involve providing help to members, moderators sharing experiences shows how they use forums to fulfil their own personal support needs, making announcements about new discoveries and upcoming events, and administrative tasks such as enforcing rules and deleting spam.
Conclusion: These results are consistent with the helper-therapy principle and provide a new insight into the diverse and varied range of activities carried out by moderators.
Practice implications: Moderators perform many roles, including using forums for their own support needs. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:03:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-46959 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:03:51Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-469592020-05-04T19:03:51Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46959/ A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums Smedley, Richard M. Coulson, Neil S. Objective: To identify and describe the activities performed by online support community moderators. Methods: A total of 790 messages were downloaded for analysis. Messages were written by 59 moderators from 6 forums that represent a diverse range of conditions (arthritis, complex regional pain syndrome, Crohn’s disease, depression, diabetes and Huntington’s disease). Results:Thematic analysis revealed four themes: supportive tasks supportive tasks involve providing help to members, moderators sharing experiences shows how they use forums to fulfil their own personal support needs, making announcements about new discoveries and upcoming events, and administrative tasks such as enforcing rules and deleting spam. Conclusion: These results are consistent with the helper-therapy principle and provide a new insight into the diverse and varied range of activities carried out by moderators. Practice implications: Moderators perform many roles, including using forums for their own support needs. Elsevier 2017-09-01 Article PeerReviewed Smedley, Richard M. and Coulson, Neil S. (2017) A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums. Patient Education and Counseling, 100 (9). pp. 1688-1693. ISSN 0738-3991 Moderator Online support community Thematic analysis Social support Helper-therapy principle http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738399117302410?via%3Dihub doi:10.1016/j.pec.2017.04.008 doi:10.1016/j.pec.2017.04.008 |
| spellingShingle | Moderator Online support community Thematic analysis Social support Helper-therapy principle Smedley, Richard M. Coulson, Neil S. A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums |
| title | A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums |
| title_full | A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums |
| title_fullStr | A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums |
| title_full_unstemmed | A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums |
| title_short | A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums |
| title_sort | thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums |
| topic | Moderator Online support community Thematic analysis Social support Helper-therapy principle |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46959/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46959/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46959/ |