Understanding blogging motivations in palliative care using Maslow's hierarchy of needs

The pervasive use and potential of weblogs has increased the field of social health informatics and is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. The prevalence of these technologies for narrative use brings about the fusion of diverse schools of thought on motivation. One proven model is that of Maslow, whose theory of needs has an intuitive appeal in understanding bloggers' needs and motivations. This paper considers practical blogging experiences for palliative care users through the theoretical lens of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Palliative care patients, carers and clinicians were interviewed about their weblogs and data qualitatively analysed. The results indicate that the experience of maintaining a weblog is therapeutic for individuals and fulfils needs hierarchically from the lowest to the highest as outlined in Maslow's theory.