Expression of patient and caregiver uncertainty in view of decision-making in online health communities

IF 2.9 2区医学 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

Patient Education and Counseling Pub Date : 2025-01-26 DOI:10.1016/j.pec.2025.108659

Sarah Bigi , Vittorio Ganfi , Sibilla Parlato , Valentina Piunno , Maria Grazia Rossi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

On the backdrop of the current debate on shared-decision making in healthcare, we are interested in understanding how uncertainty is managed when patients and/or their caregivers resort to online health communities (OHCs) for advice regarding decisions on aspects of the disease they are not fully sure of. More specifically, we present initial results concerning the expression of uncertainty in OHCs regarding decisions that have to be made about a specific illness. Our goal is to observe how patients and/or their caregivers express uncertainty regarding information they received from specialists. This can help us understand how non-experts try to cope with information they do not fully understand.

Methods

Based on a collection of interactional data taken from two Italian OHCs, our analysis focuses on the sequences in which someone asks for advice on a certain line of action and obtains an answer. We follow a mainly qualitative approach, which includes case-based qualitative analyses. More specifically, we observe uses and functions of some lexical items (evidentemente (lit., evidently), teoricamente (lit., theoretically)) and syntactic structures (specifically clauses containing the verb dire (to say)) that convey a sense of uncertainty in relation to information provided by others.

Results

Our results show different types of uncertainty, providing insights into the effort non-experts make in dealing with expert knowledge and unclear situations determined by the illness and its management.

Implications for clinical practice

Our results can be used to improve healthcare professionals’ training regarding their role as mediators between specialized and everyday knowledge.

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患者和护理人员对在线健康社区决策的不确定性表达。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Patient Education and Counseling 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

5.60

自引率

11.40%

发文量

384

审稿时长

46 days

期刊介绍： Patient Education and Counseling is an interdisciplinary, international journal for patient education and health promotion researchers, managers and clinicians. The journal seeks to explore and elucidate the educational, counseling and communication models in health care. Its aim is to provide a forum for fundamental as well as applied research, and to promote the study of organizational issues involved with the delivery of patient education, counseling, health promotion services and training models in improving communication between providers and patients.