Mapping the Content Structure of Online Diabetes Support Group Activity on Facebook

Diabetes is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases and necessitates ongoing self-management to control symptoms. People with diabetes (PWD) express various needs, which are often met in online support groups. Our objectives were to examine related discourse in Hungarian Facebook groups in order to map the content and structure of information PWD are sharing. We aimed to juxtapose our findings with the functionality of eHealth tools available to Hungarian patients to understand what these tools may be lacking. We extracted a total of 200 threads from two public self-help groups. Codes were developed inductively and applied to the entire corpus with the Interface for the Reproducible Open Coding Kit. We used Epistemic Network Analysis to model our data. The mean network of the entire dataset indicates that discourse was chiefly centered on providing help regarding lifestyle-related issues, especially diet. Critical facets of discourse included the need by experienced PWD to provide guidance to the newly diagnosed, share “street-level” knowledge on diabetes, and ensure a sense of support and community. Existing eHealth tools could be supplemented with an app that automatically downloads blood glucose meter measurements, warns patients about predicted high glucose levels, enables location-based information exchange, and promotes social support in adhering to diet and exercise. Ideally, this app would connect patients with their physicians and/or dietitians.