Popular Social Networking Websites And Diabetes: As the internet continues to grow, so does the need for social networking sites. Just under a half of U.S. adults who use the internet, use it to access social networking sites. Many social networking websites are focused on health but some are not as safe as they claim to be. Researchers at the Children’s Hospital Boston Informatics Program took a closer look through their evaluation of ten diabetic websites.
What they found was shocking, only 50 percent of the ten sites were current with content that was consistent with clinical practice and diabetic science. Few websites offered patient privacy and even less provided scientific accuracy. Seven out of the ten websites did not allow their members to restrict visibility on their profiles while three out of the ten websites advertised unsupported cures.
Elissa Weitzman, ScD, MSc, lead author of the study commented, “We saw that people are sharing incredible amounts of personal health information on these sites, including highly identifiable information. They are eager to accelerate their understanding of the disease, obtain support, find treatments and see if their experience is common or different.” Assistant professor in the laboratory, Kenneth Mandl, MD, MPH added, “They are eager to accelerate their understanding of the disease, obtain support, find treatments and see if their experience is common or different.”
The ten websites evaluated were the ones that appeared more over others in Google searches and ones that allowed their members to construct profiles and relate to one another.
While evaluating, researchers looked for four factors:
- Current content that reflected diabetes science and clinical practice
- Concise and clean privacy policies
- The limitations of sharing personal information
- Ability to review content clearly
Averagely, most websites had a little over 6,700 members and activity showed up to 100 new posts daily down to 5 posts daily, depending on the day and topics.
Many of the sites did not include a disclaimer, which is meant to share with their members, the importance of discussing with their doctors about their health. Websites are not doctors. Therefore they do not have all the answers that one needs. A doctor should still be seen. Many websites skipped out on the topic of important diabetic information as well.
When it comes to online social networks supporting health issues, diabetes is among the many that are out there. Researchers decided to evaluate diabetes social networking sites because they were among the first and have continued to remain active, while many other sites have closed down. Researchers are continuing to study these sites to find out how they are used, how people interact with them and how they share important medical information.
Mandl and Weitzman created a program last year called TuDiabetes. TuDiabetes allows users to submit their A1c levels so that it is displayed on a world-wide map. TuDiabetes is meant to encourage the management of diabetes and to encourage research as well.
“Social networking activity is clearly replacing or adding value that is missing in the standard health care system,” Mandl says. Later Weitzman added, “We sought to jump start a conversation about how to balance patients’ safety with their autonomy, as we’re in an era where terrific levels of health care communication are happening outside of the usual channels.”
