Sense making in complex health situations: Virtual health communities as sources of information and emotional support

Using a sense making approach, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role that virtual health communities play as a source of informational and social support for pregnant diabetic women. The paper helps to understand how women suffering from a critical medical condition (i.e. diabetes during pregnancy and birth) manage a complex health situation.

The data sample consisted of 507 posts collected from a virtual health community for diabetic pregnant women. Data were analysed deductively looking for different expressions of normality and different types of health information about diabetes.

Content analysis revealed four themes that reflect the process that diabetic women go through from their attempts to conceive through pregnancy and birth. The findings show that for women dealing with a chronic illness such as diabetes, the breakdown of normal was the beginning of the pregnancy that prompted a new range of informational and emotional needs. The members of the community negotiated a socially constructed sense of normality and tried to empower other members with a new sense of normal by sharing information about their births. The findings also showed that members of the community disclosed personal health information to elicit medical information, advice and social support from other members.

The study highlighted the significance of sense-making processes in managing complex health situations and the value of virtual communities as sources of information and social support as to resolve discontinuities in the management of their illnesses.