Background: Activities directed at attaining health goals are a major part of the daily lives of those fighting chronic diseases. A proliferating population of patients with chronic diseases are participating in web-based patient communities, wherein they can exchange health information and pursue health goals with others virtually. Objective: In this study, we aimed to understand the effect of participation in social media–enabled web-based patient communities on health goal attainment. In particular, we studied the antecedents of health goal attainment in terms of social support and self-reflection in web-based patient communities. Methods: This data set consists of web-based health management activities of 392 patients across 13 health support groups, that is, groups with medical issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and breast cancer; the data of the activities were collected from a leading web-based patient community. Content analysis was used to code the social interactions among the patients on the web-based platform. Cox regression for survival analysis was used to model the hazard ratio of health goal attainment. Results: Our analysis indicated that emotional support from web-based patient communities can increase patients’ probability of achieving their goals (hazard ratio 1.957, 95% CI 1.416-2.706; P<.001) while informational support does not appear to be effective (P=.06). In addition, health-related self-reflection increases the patients’ likelihood of goal attainment through web-based patient communities (hazard ratio 1.937, 95% CI 1.318-2.848; P<.001), but leisure-oriented self-reflection reduces this likelihood (hazard ratio 0.588, 95% CI 0.442-0.784; P<.001). Conclusions: Social media–enabled web-based platforms assist health goal management via both social interaction and personal discipline. This study extends the understanding of web-based patient communities by investigating the effects of both social and cognitive factors on goal attainment. In particular, our study advocates that health goals relating to chronic conditions can be better managed when patients use the facilities of web-based health communities strategically.

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中文翻译：

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基于网络的患者社区中慢性病患者的健康目标实现：内容和生存分析。

背景：针对实现健康目标的活动是与慢性病作斗争者日常生活的重要组成部分。越来越多的慢性病患者正在参加基于Web的患者社区，在这里他们可以与他人交流健康信息并追求健康目标。目的：在这项研究中，我们旨在了解参与基于社交媒体的基于Web的患者社区对健康目标实现的影响。尤其是，我们从基于网络的患者社区的社会支持和自我反思方面研究了实现健康目标的前提。方法：该数据集由基于网络的健康管理活动组成，这些活动涉及13个健康支持组中的392名患者，这些健康支持组具有医疗问题，例如高血压，糖尿病和乳腺癌；活动数据是从领先的基于网络的患者社区收集的。内容分析用于在基于Web的平台上编码患者之间的社交互动。使用Cox回归进行生存分析，以模拟实现健康目标的危险比。结果：我们的分析表明，基于网络的患者社区的情感支持可以增加患者实现目标的可能性（危险比1.957，95％CI 1.416-2.706； P <.001），而信息支持似乎无效（ P = .06）。此外，与健康相关的自我反省会增加患者通过基于网络的患者群体实现目标的可能性（危险比1.937，95％CI 1.318-2.848； P <.001），而休闲型自我反省会降低这一目标可能性（危险比0.588，95％CI 0.442-0.784; P <。001）。结论：基于社交媒体的基于Web的平台可通过社交互动和个人纪律来协助健康目标管理。这项研究通过调查社会和认知因素对目标实现的影响，扩展了对基于网络的患者社区的了解。特别是，我们的研究主张，当患者策略性地使用基于网络的健康社区的设施时，可以更好地管理与慢性病相关的健康目标。

这仅仅是抽象的。阅读JMIR网站上的全文。JMIR是互联网时代电子健康和医疗保健领域领先的开放获取期刊。