The Role of Social Media in Managing Chronic Diseases Focus on Diabetes and Obesity
In a blog post titled “Open letter to NPR about Diabetes Social Media piece,” Kerri Morrone Sparling of Six Until Me, attempted to refute a claim made by Jason Bronner, a doctor at the University of California San Diego Medical Center, who said “There’s no proof in diabetes that social networking is helpful.”
Sparling says “initial evidence suggests that the benefits of social media to people living with chronic illness are real, even though large scale studies have not shown precisely who benefits and how much.”
OK. What we have here is a failure to communicate. On the one hand, there’s the physician who’s looking for “evidence” that diabetes is being managed. That in-volves numbers such as HbA1c (a lab test that shows the average level of blood sugar over the previous three months; It shows how well patients are controlling their diabetes).
On the other hand is the patient argument that “emotional support” is also a key benefit.
One could argue that BOTH sides have merit.
Topics include:
- Benefits of Social Media for Patients
- Social Media and Support
- Social Media & Preventive Health Behaviors
- Social Media and Knowledge Skills
- Social Media as it was Way Back When
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PMN1111-04
Issue: Vol. 11, No. 11: December 2012
