Type 2 Diabetes Education and Support in a Virtual Environment: A Secondary Analysis of Synchronously Exchanged Social Interaction and Support (Preprint)

Abstract

Background: Virtual environments (VEs) facilitate interaction and support among individuals with chronic illness, yet the characteristics of these VE-interactions remain unknown.Objective: This study described social interaction and support among individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) who interacted in a VE.Methods: Data included VE-mediated synchronous conversations and text-chat and asynchronous emails and discussion board posts from a study that facilitated interaction among individuals with T2D and diabetes educators (N = 24) in two types of sessions, educational and support.Results: Virtual environment interactions consisted of: communication techniques (how individuals interact in the VE), expressions of self-management (T2D-related topics), depth (personalization of topics), and breadth (number of topics discussed). Individuals exchanged support more often in the education (n=723, 62%) than in the support (n=406, 34%) sessions. Of all support exchanges, 535 (46%) were informational, 377 (32%) were emotional, 217 (19%) were appraisal and 41 (4%) were instrumental. Comparing session types, education sessions predominately provided informational support (357 or 49%), and the support sessions predominately provided emotional support (159 or 39%). Conclusion:Virtual environment-mediated interactions resemble those in face-to-face environments, as individuals in VEs engage in bidirectional exchanges with others to obtain selfmanagement education and support. Similar to face-to-face environments, individuals in the VE revealed personal information, sought information, and exchanged support during the moderated education sessions and unstructured support sessions. With this versatility, VEs are able to contribute substantially to support for those with diabetes and, very likely, other chronic diseases.

A framework for equitable virtual rehabilitation in the metaverse era: challenges and opportunities

“…In this regard, using avatars presents the possibility of humanizing rehabilitation care, and patients and clinicians can use avatars to interact and establish/explore a clinical virtual space. Virtual representations of patients in Metaverse interactions, through avatars, can enable the feeling of being virtually present or virtually co-present, adding synchronous communication (75). Some studies reported that these virtual interactions might help individuals to share personal information and potentially more information than in face-to-face interactions (18,76).…”