Social media in health and care co-production

The future of health and care services in the EU faces the three challenges of the aging population, fiscal restriction, and social inclusion. Co-production offers ways to manage informal care resources to enable them to better cater to the growing needs of elderly people. Social Media (SM) are seen as a critical enabler of co-production. This study investigates SM as an enabler of co-production in health and care for elderly people and develops a typology of opportunities and limitations of SM in relation to health and care. The study considers how SM acts as an enabler of co-production in health and care by facilitating its four underlying principles: equality, diversity, accessibility, and reciprocity. Normalization Process Theory (NPT) provides the theoretical framework for this qualitative study. Eighteen semi-structured interviews and observation of the activities of 10 online groups and individuals provide the data for the thematically-analysed findings. The study findings show how different SM are used to enable co-production through coordination and communication across boundaries. SM connects carers, disseminates information and engages volunteers. However, many types of SM are only rarely used in this sector due to their limitations. Nevertheless, carers of elderly patients demonstrated interest in using systems to engage people in the shaping of services, the sharing of experiences and encouraging activities. The study findings point to distinct patterns of feature use by different people involved in the care of elderly people. This diversity makes possible the principles of co-production by offering equality among users, enabling diversity of use, making experiences accessible, and encouraging reciprocity in the sharing of knowledge and mutual support. Exploitation of common resources also may lead to new forms of competition and conflicts. These conflicts require better management to enhance the coordination of the common pool of resources. The study finds that SM can facilitate co-production by offering mechanisms for coordination of the common pool of carer resources. It also enables better management of activities amongst other actors (professionals, patients, voluntary organisations, etc.). The study also demonstrates that, despite the capabilities of SM in achieving coproduction, many applications (both general and healthcare-specific) are not used to their full potential. The study also explores new innovations in this field and why they have failed to deliver their intended services

Cyberbullying: a storm in a teacup?

Cyberbullying has been portrayed as a rising ‘epidemic’ amongst children and adolescents. But does it create many new victims beyond those already bullied with traditional means (physical, relational)? Our aim was to determine whether cyberbullying creates uniquely new victims, and whether it has similar impact upon psychological and behavioral outcomes for adolescents, beyond those experienced by traditional victims. This study assessed 2745 pupils, aged 11–16, from UK secondary schools. Pupils completed an electronic survey that measured bullying involvement, self-esteem and behavioral problems. Twenty-nine percent reported being bullied but only 1% of adolescents were pure cyber-victims (i.e., not also bullied traditionally). Compared to direct or relational victims, cyber-victimization had similar negative effects on behavior (z = −0.41) and self-esteem (z = −0.22) compared to those not involved in bullying. However, those bullied by multiple means (poly-victims) had the most difficulties with behavior (z = −0.94) and lowest self-esteem (z = −0.78). Cyberbullying creates few new victims, but is mainly a new tool to harm victims already bullied by traditional means. Cyberbullying extends the reach of bullying beyond the school gate. Intervention strategies against cyberbullying may need to include approaches against traditional bullying and its root causes to be successful.Published versio

Cyber victimisation of people with chronic conditions and disabilities: a systematic review of scope and impact

The victimization of individuals with chronic conditions or disabilities is prevalent with severe impact at psychological and physiological levels. With the increasing use of technology these experiences were further reshaped. This systematic review aimed at scoping the experiences of cyber-victimization of people living with chronic conditions or disabilities and examine the documented impact on them. Following a four-stage search strategy in several databases including MEDLINE, Embase, PsychINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane and snowballing of references, a total of 2,922 studies were scanned and 10 studies were eventually included. Quality assessment was done in two phases using tools specific to observational studies and cyber-victimization research. A narrative synthesis of reported results covered a total of 3,070 people. Sample size ranged between 42 and 823 participants, and the age range was 6-71 years with a majority of White ethnic backgrounds. Most studies (n=9) were cross sectional. The prevalence range of cyber-victimization was 2%-41.7% based on variable definitions, duration and methods. Targeted conditions included physical impairments, intellectual disabilities and specific chronic diseases. The most common documented impact was psychological/psychiatric, mainly depression followed by anxiety and distress. Somatic health complaints and self-harm were also reported. We concluded that people with chronic conditions and disabilities were consistently at higher risk of victimization with devastating health complications. Research gaps were identified such as the need to address more conditions and acknowledge differences between heterogeneous health conditions. Other recommendations include allowing flexibility and accountability to patients/victims in research design, education on victimization and health consequences, and improving primary care

Longitudinal Associations Between Cyberbullying Involvement and Adolescent Mental Health

S.C. is supported by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Research Fellowship. The ORiEL Study is funded by the NIHR Public Health Research Programme (grant number: 09/3005/09)