This presentation highlights a project which compares the social support and influence experienced by people who use online social networks to the support and influence they experience from in-person friends and family. This presentation was part of the retreat mini-symposium entitled: Smartphones, Sensors, and Social Networks: The New Tools of Health Behavior Change

Pagoto, Sherry L.

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University of Massachusetts Medical School eScholarship@UMMS UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science Research Retreat 2013 UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science Research Retreat May 8th, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Social Support for Weight Loss: Online Friends Versus Real Friends Sherry L. Pagoto University of Massachusetts Medical School Let us know how access to this document benefits you. Follow this and additional works at: https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cts_retreat  Part of the Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Communication Commons, Health Information Technology Commons, Health Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, and the Translational Medical Research Commons Pagoto SL. (2013). Social Support for Weight Loss: Online Friends Versus Real Friends. UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science Research Retreat. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cts_retreat/2013/presentations/14 Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. This material is brought to you by eScholarship@UMMS. It has been accepted for inclusion in UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science Research Retreat by an authorized administrator of eScholarship@UMMS. For more information, please contact Lisa.Palmer@umassmed.edu. Sherry Pagoto, PhD  Associate Professor of Medicine University of Massachusetts Medical School   Collaborators Kristin Schneider, PhD   Effie Olendzki    Martinus Evans  Social contagion  Obesity is “socially contagious” such that people are significantly more likely to be obese when they have an obese spouse and/or friends (Christakis and Fowler, 2007)   Health habits are also shared in social circles   Good news:  If you adopt healthy behaviors, your family and friends may be more inclined to.   Challenge:  To get healthier, you’re gonna need to find some healthy friends.   “Peer to peer healthcare”   34% of internet users have read about someone else’s experience with a health condition on the internet (Pew Internet Survey 2012)   25% of internet users with a chronic health condition have sought out others with that condition on the internet (Pew Internet Survey 2012) Organic online social network for weight loss on Twitter?  Observation:  There is a subculture of Twitter users who use it to talk about their weight loss journey.  Study:  How much positive and negative social influence about weight loss do people get from Twitter vs Facebook vs in-person friends, vs family?  Methods  PI tweeted the survey 33 times over 4 weeks to get 90 complete responses for 2.72 surveys/tweet  Tweet: “Do you tweet about your weight loss journey? Complete a brief survey!”  Survey evaluated:   4 areas of positive social influence (comfort, helpful, informative, supportive)  2 areas of negative social influence (embarrassment, judgmental)   Participants  90 surveys completed  79 participants had both Twitter and Facebook accounts   82% female, mean age = 35 (range 21-57)  Mean weight lost in current weight loss effort = 35 lbs, sd=36 (range 0-193 lbs)   Twitter  Facebook  p value Account duration .11     < 1 year 25.3% 1%      1-3 years 55.7% 17%      3+ years 19% 81% Log-in frequency .60     Several times/day 68% 57%     Daily 23% 25%     Less than daily 9% 17% Number of friends/follows 437 (533) 474 (621) .73 % of friends/followers originated from an offline relationship 12% (19%) 82% (26%) .00 Items I feel comfortable talking about weight loss, diet, and exercise with _____. In general, I find ____to be very helpful to me as I try to lose weight. I get support from ____about my weight. I get useful information from ____about weight loss, diet, and/or exercise. I have felt embarrassed about my weight when it comes to ____. ____tend to be judgmental about my weight.    Social Support 0 1 2 3 4 5 Twitter Facebook Family Friends Comfort Talking About Weight 0 1 2 3 4 5 Twitter Facebook Family Friends How Helpful Are They  To Your Weight Loss Effort * 0 1 2 3 4 5 Twitter Facebook Family Friends How Supportive to  Your Weight Loss Effort 0 1 2 3 4 5 Twitter Facebook Family Friends Get Information * * * * Negative influence 0 1 2 3 4 5 Twitter Facebook Family Friends Feel Embarrassed About Weight  0 1 2 3 4 5 Twitter Facebook Family Friends How Judgmental * * What Do You Like Most? Twitter (n=103 responses) Facebook (n=28 responses) Sharing information                     31% Support/encouragement                   32% Support and encouragement      21% Information sharing                           18% Common interest/community      17% Find in person friends with weight struggles                                           18% Motivation/inspiration                  13% Pic sharing                                        14% Anonymity                                   10% Forming a private group                    11% Lack of judgment                          6% Way to drive people to Twitter            4% Conciseness of tweets                 1% Lack of judgment relative to face-to-face interactions                                        3% What Do You Like Least? Twitter (n=36 responses) Facebook (n=34 responses) Social comparison                               19% Friends don’t care/think I’m bragging                                                                         26% Too much info                                      19% Don’t want friends to know         23% Lack of personal connection/don’t live close to people I follow                        17% Misinformation/bad advice         20% Inconsistent response from followers                                                                                                  14% Judgmental                          20% Ads/spam                                             11% Social comparison                       1% 140 character limit                                 8% Cliques                                                  6% Misinformation                                       3% At first hard to find people to follow       3% Discussion points  Twitter is a source of positive social support for weight loss (more so than Facebook)  Why?  More likely source of encouragement, community and information than Facebook  Anonymity may circumvent stigma/shame, disinhibits discomfort about talking freely  Social network is hand-crafted, negative forces are easy to eliminate    Limitations  Selection bias –recruiting from Twitter may have selected folks who are more positive about Twitter than Facebook   No social support measure has been developed specifically for online social behavior     Future Research  We need theoretical models of online social interaction   Can social media-naïve people be entered into these networks and benefit?   What are the characteristics of people who are drawn to online social networks?  Find us on Twitter:  @DrSherryPagoto  @DrKrisSchneider  @EffieChung  @300lbsandrunnin  

Social Support for Weight Loss: Online Friends Versus Real Friends

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Social Support for Weight Loss: Online Friends Versus Real Friends

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