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Profiling commenters on mental health-related online forums : a methodological example focusing on eating disorder-related commenters
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McCaig, Duncan, Elliott, Mark T., Siew, Cynthia S.Q., Walasek, Lukasz and Meyer, Caroline (2019) Profiling commenters on mental health-related online forums : a methodological example focusing on eating disorder-related commenters. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 6 (4). e12555. doi:10.2196/12555 ISSN 1438-8871.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.2196/12555
Abstract
Background
Understanding the characteristics of commenters on mental health-related online forums is vital for the development of effective psychological interventions in these communities. The way in which commenters interact can enhance our understanding of their characteristics.
Objective
Using eating disorder-related (EDR) forums as an example, this study details a methodology that aimed to determine subtypes of mental health-related forums, and profile their commenters based on the other forums to which they contributed.
Methods
The researchers identified all public EDR-forums (with ≥500 contributing commenters between March 2017 and February 2018) on a large online discussion platform (Reddit). A mixed-methods approach comprising network analysis with community-detection, text-mining and manual review identified subtypes of EDR-forums. For each subtype, another network analysis with community-detection was conducted using the EDR-forum commenter-overlap between 50 forums on which the commenters also commented. The topics of forums in each detected community were then manually reviewed to identify the shared interests of each subtype of EDR-forum commenters.
Results
Six subtypes of EDR-forums were identified, to which 14024 commenters had contributed. The results focus on two subtypes – pro-eating disorder, and thinspiration – and communities of commenters within both subtypes. Within the pro-eating disorder subtype, three communities of commenters were detected that related to the body and eating, mental health, and women, appearance and mixed topics. Regarding the thinspiration group, 78% of commenters had also commented on pornographic forums, and 17% had contributed to pro-eating disorder forums.
Conclusions
The article exemplifies a methodology that provides insight into subtypes of mental health-related forums, and the characteristics of their commenters. The findings have implications for future research, and online psychological interventions. With the publicly available data and code provided, researchers can easily reproduce the analyses, or utilise the methodology to investigate other mental health-related forums.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Engineering > WMG (Formerly the Warwick Manufacturing Group) |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Online social networks, Eating disorders | ||||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Medical Internet Research | ||||||||||||
Publisher: | Journal of Medical Internet Research | ||||||||||||
ISSN: | 1438-8871 | ||||||||||||
Official Date: | 22 April 2019 | ||||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 6 | ||||||||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||||||||
Article Number: | e12555 | ||||||||||||
DOI: | 10.2196/12555 | ||||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||||||
Copyright Holders: | The Authors | ||||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 4 February 2019 | ||||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 5 February 2019 | ||||||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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