Social Support in a Diabetes Online Community: Mixed Methods Content Analysis

To quantify associations between four types of social support and measured adiposity among women and men. The cross-sectional sample from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA, 2012-2015). Height, weight and waist circumference (WC) were clinically measured, and perceived availability of informational, tangible, emotional and belonging social supports was self-reported. Canada. 28 779 adults aged 45-85 years from the CLSA. All social support types were associated with WC and BMI among women but not among men. Women reporting the lowest informational support had significantly higher mean BMI (28·84 kg/m2 (95 % CI 28·63, 29·05)) and WC (90·81 cm (95 % CI 90·31, 91·30)) compared with women reporting maximum support (respectively, 28·09 kg/m2 (95 % CI 27·88, 28·30) and 88·92 cm (95 % CI 88·43, 89·4)). Women's abdominal obesity was associated with low levels of informational, emotional and belonging support, and women's general obesity with informational and emotional support. Notably, informational and emotional support were associated with both obesity outcomes independent of other supports among women. Only a low level of informational support was significantly independently associated with higher odds of obesity among men. Our study provides novel insights into gender-specific associations between different types of social support and adiposity. Prospective studies are needed to further investigate potential causality of these associations between the specific social supports and future weight status, especially among women.

BackgroundParents play an important role in providing their children with social support for healthy eating and physical activity. However, different types of social support (e.g., instrumental, emotional, modeling, rules) might have different results on children’s actual behavior. The purpose of this study was to assess the association of the different types of social support with children’s physical activity and eating behaviors, as well as to examine whether these associations differ across racial/ethnic groups.MethodsWe surveyed 1169 low-income, ethnically diverse third graders and their caregivers to assess how children’s physical activity and eating behaviors (fruit and vegetable and sugar-sweetened beverage intake) were associated with instrumental social support, emotional social support, modeling, rules and availability of certain foods in the home. We used sequential linear regression to test the association of parental social support with a child’s physical activity and eating behaviors, adjusting for covariates, and then stratified to assess the differences in this association between racial/ethnic groups.ResultsParental social support and covariates explained 9–13% of the variance in children’s energy balance-related behaviors. Family food culture was significantly associated with fruit and vegetable and sugar-sweetened beverage intake, with availability of sugar-sweetened beverages in the home also associated with sugar-sweetened beverage intake. Instrumental and emotional support for physical activity were significantly associated with the child’s physical activity. Results indicate that the association of various types of social support with children’s physical activity and eating behaviors differ across racial/ethnic groups.ConclusionsThese results provide considerations for future interventions that aim to enhance parental support to improve children’s energy balance-related behaviors.

Little is known about how online social networking can help enhance weight loss. To examine the types of online social support utilized in a behavioral weight loss intervention and relationship of posting and weight loss. A sub-analysis of the content and number of posts to Twitter among participants (n = 47) randomized to a mobile, social network arm as part of a 6-month trial among overweight adults, examining weight loss, use of Twitter, and type of social support (informational, tangible assistance, esteem, network, and emotional support). A number of Twitter posts were related to % weight loss at 6months (p < 0.001). Initial reported weight loss predicted engagement with Twitter (p < 0.01) but prior Twitter use or initial Twitter engagement did not. Most Twitter posts (total posts n = 2,630) were Informational support (n = 1,981; 75%), with the predominant subtype of Teaching (n = 1,632; 62%), mainly in the form of a status update (n = 1,319). Engagement with Twitter was related to weight loss and participants mainly used Twitter to provide Information support to one another through status updates.

Most prior research on culture and the dynamics of social support has focused on the emotional outcomes for social support recipients. Though an existing body of research has identified cross-cultural differences in the emotional correlates of receiving different types of social support, researchers have seldom examined possible cultural differences in the experience of social support providers. This study used the Day Reconstruction Method to examine cultural differences in the emotional correlates of the provision of solicited and unsolicited and emotional and informational social support in the daily lives of Singaporean (n = 79) and American (n = 88) participants. Singaporean participants reported providing more social support overall. Regardless of culture, participants reported more positive emotion (affection, happiness) and less negative emotion (anger, anxiety) when they provided emotional social support. Also, multilevel modeling analyses revealed a 3-way interaction between culture, social support provision, and social support solicitation, indicating cultural differences in negative emotional responses to providing solicited social support. Specifically, results suggest that attempts to provide more solicited social support were associated with more negative emotions in the U.S. In contrast, provider negative emotions were highest in Singapore when the provider did not meet the recipient’s request for support. Patterns of cultural differences in social support provision are dissimilar to—rather than simply mirroring—those found in published research on social support receipt, highlighting the importance of studying social support provision as a distinct phenomenon.

Purpose Social support is an important factor in shaping healthcare navigation, coping, and psychological outcomes among pediatric cancer caregivers. Socioeconomic status is positively associated with satisfaction with social support, however, less is understood about network features that contribute to these differences. Social networks are the context in which resources and support are exchanged. Networks can exacerbate inequalities by amplifying differences in access to resources. We examined satisfaction with types of social support and composition of support networks among pediatric cancer caregivers to understand how social network dynamics differ by caregiver income and educational attainment. Design Participants were caregivers of children who received cancer treatment at multiple hospital systems in New York State. All families who met eligibility requirements during the recruitment period were invited to participate in the study, and 59% of caregivers contacted enrolled in the study. We used a self-report survey to collect egocentric social network data from 107 caregivers of pediatric cancer patients. We used bivariate logistic regression to examine differences in network support by income and education. We used Bayesian Zero and One Inflated Beta (ZOIB) regression models to examine differences in network composition by income and education. Results Income was significantly associated with satisfaction with informational, emotional, and logistical support; and for each additional income category the odds of reporting being satisfied with each type of support increased by nearly 1.5 times. There were also differences in satisfaction with informational support by education, and each additional education category was associated with a nearly 2-fold increased likelihood of satisfaction. Caregivers with higher education reported a relatively lower proportion of family/kin in their network and a relatively greater proportion of health care providers, compared to those with less education. Conclusions Our results show differences in social support satisfaction and social network composition by income and education among pediatric cancer caregivers. These results have implications for improving intervention. Creating interventions to foster social network ties and activate social support may be a promising direction for promoting health equity.

PurposeOnline health communities (OHCs) are attracting more and more healthy consumers, including patients, their families, caregivers and the general public. This paper aims to explore the themes and characteristics of patient-generated content (PGC) in Chinese OHCs.Design/methodology/approachBaidu Tieba for hypertension was selected as the research site. Online ethnography (netnography) approach was utilized to explore the PGC and health communication in the online hypertension community. The final database included 300 randomly sampled threads and their 3,187 reply posts and was further analyzed from three perspectives: health information needs, attitudes and psychological reactions to hypertension and social support exchange.FindingsThe members' health information needs were mainly concentrated on five aspects: causes, symptoms, measuring instrument, tests and diagnosis and treatment. Their attitudes and psychological reactions to hypertension varied with the context, for example, disease stage, health condition. Within the health communication, three types of social support – information support, emotional support and network support – were generated, transmitted and exchanged among members.Practical implicationsOHCs are able to serve as important source of health information and tool for health education. The implications and suggestions for health promotion of individuals, health information services optimization of OHCs and national health strategy plans were also discussed.Originality/valueThis is the first netnography study in information field on Chinese online hypertension community. This study provides a new perspective to explore the needs, attitudes and social support behaviors of Chinese hypertension population and also enables the Chinese experience of using OHCs to reduce health disparities to come to the world.

The goal of this study was to examine the role of stress and four different types of social support in satisfaction with life (SWL) among adults with rare diseases (RDs). We examined whether support is directly related to SWL (main effects model) or related through moderating the inverse relationship between stress and SWL (stress-buffering hypothesis). Data came from a cross-sectional survey of adults living in the United States diagnosed with any RD. Participants (n = 1,203) filled out measures of stress, four short-form scales of social support (emotional, informational, tangible, companionship), and SWL. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test both the main effects model and stress-buffering hypothesis. Controlling for age, gender, years since diagnosis, and symptom severity, emotional support, but not informational or tangible support, positively predicted SWL. Companionship support was related to SWL over and above other factors. Stress negatively predicted SWL, but none of the types of support moderated this relationship. Results suggest companionship and emotional support are beneficial to individuals with RDs regardless of their stress levels. Intervention research should focus on ways to foster more companionship and emotional support to improve SWL in this underserved population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

I just think that you've got to have someone out there to do the little things. When we have Paul [Pierce] and Kevin [Garnett] out there, and Jeff [Green] and [Jason Terry], all those guys making plays offensively, you need guys to make the smaller plays. Night in and night out, it's going to be different roles that I play and I'm cool with that.

The aim of this paper is to explore how silence, secrecy and censorship related to sexual harassment are fragmented through dialogue and information sharing among social networks, leading to different types of social support given and received. In-depth interviews with 40 respondents and focus group discussions with four groups were carried out under the qualitative research approach. The theory of social support was employed as the theoretical basis of the study. The findings indicated that through dialogue and information sharing related to sexual harassment within social networks of friends, family, co-workers and sometimes superiors, women gain and give emotional, informational, instrumental and appraisal support, emphasizing the many instances when the issue becomes open, non-privatized, and social. Stemming from these findings, implications for managers in terms of using social support as a means of dealing with sexual harassment in organizations are discussed.

Adults need to be more physically active. Evidence shows that in-person social support promotes physical activity; however, there is a lack of evidence for remote social support. Thus, this study assesses remote social support and physical activity. Four electronic databases were searched using physical activity, social support, and remote MeSH terms. A double-rater system was used to screen the identified peer-reviewed journal articles (n = 2,226). To be included, articles had to include remotely-delivered social support and physical activity. Social support was categorised into appraisal, belongingness, emotional, informational, and instrumental support. Physical activity was categorised into self-report, accelerometer, and other. Frequency counts were computed by totalling the number of times that each category was reported among the included articles (n = 60). The articles were divided into two groups to compare; (1) “effective” and (2) “noneffective” social support for physical activity. The most frequent physical activity measurement was self-report (n = 36, 60%). The most frequent remote social support was informational (n = 48, 37%) then appraisal (n = 40, 31%), emotional (n = 28, 21%), instrumental (n = 8, 6%), and belonginess (n = 7, 5%). The “effective” group reported more emotional support (n = 21, 25%) and three or more categories of social support (n = 18, 22%) compared to the “noneffective” group (n = 5, 9.8% and n = 2, 8%, respectively). Remote emotional support seems to be associated with physical activity; however, more research is needed to determine (1) the directionality of this correlation and (2) if this association is due to more categories of support or specifically emotional support.

Social support (SS) and physical activity (PA) can improve quality of life (QoL) in cancer, meaning group PA programs are important for rehabilitation. However, there are many types of SS, and few studies have compared which SS concepts are more strongly associated with PA and QoL. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined the association between several types of SS provided by other people in group exercise oncology classes and PA and QoL among adults living with cancer. It was hypothesized all types of SS would be positively associated with PA and QoL. Participants (N = 72) completed a questionnaire assessing 11 SS predictors, five QoL outcomes, and one self-reported PA outcome, and wore a Fitbit to assess step count for 1 week. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression. Reassurance of worth support predicted self-reported moderate-to-vigorous PA (R 2 = .07, p = .03). Relatedness thwarting negatively predicted general (R 2 = .07, p = .03) and social well-being (R 2 = .10, p = .01). Social network predicted physical well-being (R 2 = .07, F(1, 66) = 4.93, p = .03). There were no significant SS predictors of the other outcomes. Group exercise oncology programs should train instructors to promote reassurance of worth by recognizing or facilitating other participants to recognize participants’ PA competence and skills, encourage developing social relationships by creating opportunities to connect over time, and minimize relatedness thwarting by promoting belonging and inclusion. Future research should compare different types of SS in larger samples and diverse populations of adults living with cancer.

Background: Adolescents are highly vulnerable to depressive symptoms worldwide partially because of limited social supports. However, it still remains largely unknown regarding the associations between social support(s) and depressive symptoms among adolescents living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The aim of this study aimed to explore the associations between different types of social support and depressive symptoms in adolescents from LMICs. Methods: Data were retrieved from the Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS) in which 92,551 adolescents (50.6% females) were included with mean of 15.6 years. Depressive symptoms in the past one month as the dependent variable were measured in combination with social support (was measured by “During the past 30 days, how often were most of the students in your school kind and helpful?”). Multivariable logistic regression and meta-analysis of country-wise estimates were performed to investigate the associations between social support and depressive symptoms, and the heterogeneity of the associations across the countries, respectively. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 30.9% of adolescents from LMICs. Peer support and parental connectedness were two major factors that were significantly associated with depression symptoms in adolescents. However, the associations of peer support and parental connectedness with depressive symptoms were significant in males and females, respectively. The country-wise analysis indicated that varied inconsistency (small to large) across the associations of peer support and parental connectedness with depressive symptoms in adolescents. Conclusion: Results in this study provides multi-national evidence of the protective roles of social support against depressive symptoms among adolescents. However, the association between social support and depression symptoms may be moderated by sex and types of social support. Although we found that social support may be an important protective factor against depressive symptoms in adolescents from LMICs, specifically designed interventions should be implemented based on sex difference and country difference.

This paper contributes to the discussion on health behavior change support systems by examining one of the persuasive software features, social support. The paper studies the influence of structural social support on functional social support types in the online environment. Specifically, the paper examines the frequency of using two different kinds of online social platforms (online forums and Facebook groups) that are used to facilitate peer social support in weight loss and their influence on perceived functional social support types (emotional, informational, and instrumental). The results show that frequent use of Facebook based support peer group facilitates perceived emotional, informational, and instrumental support, whereas frequent use of online forum based peer support group facilitates emotional and informational support but much less than Facebook support group usage does. Thus, modifying the support platform makes it possible to influence perceived functional social support.

Investigate the links between different types of social support, psychological well-being and distress among individuals with anxiety disorders. Data were drawn from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS cycle 1.2) which had 36,984 participants, 1,803 of whom presented with anxiety disorders. Classical linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the links between different social support dimensions and psychological well-being on one hand, and psychological distress on the other hand. Women reported perceiving significantly higher levels of affective, emotional/informational, tangible support and positive social interactions than men. After controlling for potentially confounding variables (socio-demographic variables and the presence of a major depressive disorder), three types of social supports appeared to be predictors for the psychological well-being of women with anxiety disorders: positive social interactions, emotional/informational support, and affective support. For men, none of the social support variables were significantly associated with psychological well-being or distress. The comparisons of Beta coefficients do not show any significant difference between the sexes. Social support appears to be a positive predictor for psychological well-being among women with an anxiety disorder. No associations were found between social support variables and the psychological distress perceived by men and women. The results of this study therefore confirm the importance of teaching appropriate support strategies adapted for anxiety disorders. Future studies should assess negative social interactions in addition to social support.

The prevalence of depressive symptoms among family caregivers has been documented as a serious social problem that could threaten the lives of the elderly and their family caregivers. Social support is considered to be a promising remedy for this problem, although a comprehensive examination of the availability and effectiveness of social support that includes both formal and informal support across multiple dimensions remains limited. In addition, little research has been conducted in Japan on gender differences in stress processes. This study tried to fill those gaps by analyzing recent survey data on sons and daughters who are caring for their elderly parents. The results indicate that sons and daughters have similar levels of formal and informal support for daily care and advice, while there are some gender differences in regard to the availability of other types of social support. It was also found that many types of informal support were significantly associated with a lower caregiver burden for daughters, although this was not necessarily the case for formal support. General instrumental support from formal sources was even associated with higher levels of distress. For sons acting as caregivers, daily caregiving support was the only formal support that was significantly associated with their lower level of distress. Issues of formal support are discussed, in order to reduce the psychological burdens borne by sons and daughters who care for their parents at home.