Introduction

Moderated online health communities (OHCs) are digital platforms that provide a means for patients with similar medical conditions to communicate with each other under the supervision of healthcare professionals.

Aims

To examine the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on content and type of posts published in two moderated OHCs – eating disorders and depression/anxiety – by comparing categorizations of posts written before vs. after the lockdown, and about vs. not about the pandemic.

Methods

Posts were retrieved from Camoni, the first Israeli medical social network (January-June 2017, March-May 2020). A total of 1475 posts were analyzed. Of them, 802 posts were written before and 680 were written during the first lockdown. Posts were divided into two main categories: informational and emotional, and into fourteen subcategories.

Results

Before the pandemic, the eating disorders OHC was characterized as primarily emotional (emotional: 66.7%, informational: 45.4%) and the depression/anxiety OHC as primarily informational (emotional: 49.8%, informational: 65.8%) (χ² = 31.6, p < 0.001). During the lockdown, there was a transition in the eating disorders community, from primarily emotional to primarily informational communication (emotional: 46.1%, informational: 71.7%) (χ² = 30.3, p < 0.001). In both OHCs, only about one in six posts written during the lockdown was related to the pandemic. There were only minimal differences in subcategorization of posts written before vs. after the outbreak (e.g., searching for medical information was more common during the pandemic: χ² = 40.9, p < 0.001), as well as about vs. not about the pandemic (e.g., sharing negative emotions was more common when writing about the pandemic: χ² = 4.1, p = 0.43).

Conclusion

During the first lockdown, people with eating disorders have increased their use of OHCs as sources of informational (as opposed to emotional) support, but the overall impact of the pandemic on the content of posts written in the examined OHCs was minimal, suggesting that OHCs have not changed their function as a valuable means of providing emotional and informational support for people with mental difficulties.

中文翻译：

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在线饮食失调和抑郁/焦虑缓和社区中撰写的帖子分析：COVID-19 爆发之前和期间的情绪和信息交流

介绍

受监管的在线健康社区 (OHC) 是一种数字平台，它为患有类似疾病的患者在医疗保健专业人员的监督下相互交流提供了一种手段。

目标

通过比较封锁之前和之后撰写的帖子的分类，以及关于大流行的帖子的分类，检查 COVID-19 爆发对两个有节制的 OHC 中发布的帖子的内容和类型的影响 - 饮食失调和抑郁/焦虑.

方法

帖子检索自以色列第一个医疗社交网络Camoni （2017 年 1 月至 6 月，2020 年 3 月至 5 月）。共分析了 1475 个帖子。其中，802 篇是之前写的，680 篇是在第一次封锁期间写的。帖子分为两大类：信息类和情感类，并分为十四个子类。

结果

在大流行之前，饮食失调 OHC 的特征主要是情绪性的（情绪性的：66.7%，信息性的：45.4%），而抑郁/焦虑 OHC 的特征主要是信息性的（情绪性的：49.8%，信息性的：65.8%）（χ ²  = 31.6， p < 0.001)。在封锁期间，饮食失调社区发生了转变，从主要是情感交流到主要是信息交流（情感交流：46.1%，信息交流：71.7%）（χ ²  = 30.3，p < 0.001）。在这两个 OHC 中，在锁定期间撰写的帖子中只有大约六分之一与大流行有关。疫情爆发前与疫情爆发后所写帖子的子类别差异很小（例如，在大流行期间搜索医疗信息更为常见：χ ² = 40.9，p < 0.001），以及关于大流行与不关于大流行的关系（例如，在撰写大流行时，分享负面情绪更为常见：χ ²  = 4.1，p = 0.43）。

结论

在第一次封锁期间，饮食失调的人增加了使用 OHC 作为信息（而不是情感）支持的来源，但大流行对所检查 OHC 中所写帖子内容的总体影响很小，这表明 OHC并没有改变它们作为为有精神障碍的人提供情感和信息支持的宝贵手段的功能。