Variation in Health Blog Features and Elements by Gender, Occupation, and Perspective

Abstract

This study explores whether there are gender and occupational differences in the health blogosphere and whether there are differences by blogger perspective. Data were derived from content analysis of 951 health blogs identified between June 2007 and May 2008. Results indicate that male, physician bloggers were more likely to have blogs that feature a SiteMeter, sponsorship, and advertising, which also were more prevalent among those blogging from a professional perspective. Women, bloggers in non-health-related employment, and patient/consumer and caregiver bloggers were more likely to blog about disease and disability; men, bloggers in health-related employment, and professional bloggers were more likely to blog about provider experiences, health research/news, and health policy, business, law, and technology. Because the Internet is becoming a primary source of health information, establishing normative guidelines regarding information quality, patient privacy, and conflicts of interest is essential. Future research should build on these findings using national surveys of health bloggers and textual analysis of blog content.

Genetics Blogs as a Public Health Tool: Assessing Credibility and Influence

“…Genetics blogs with for-profit affiliations may be viewed as having conflicts of interest related to promoting genetic tools or products with limited or unknown utility. Indeed, conflicts of interest, sponsorship and commercial advertising have been cited as an area of concern for health blogs in general [7]. Anecdotally, we also noted that it was unclear in some cases whether a blog received sponsorship or was otherwise affiliated with an organization or company.…”

“…Google, Yahoo, and Bing) and websites that aggregated science and genetics blogs. Then we used an iterative snowball sampling approach in which additional genetics blogs were identified by following links embedded in already-collected blogs [7]. The process was continued until no more eligible blogs were identified.…”

“…One principle type of interactive Internet platform is the blog, which is a frequently updated website composed of dated entries organized in reverse chronological order [6] (see Miller et al [7] for a detailed discussion of blogs in health contexts). Blogs have a great potential as a public health tool for relaying scientific news about topics like genomics.…”

Life and Death in the Mental-Health Blogosphere: An Analysis of Blog Content and Survival

“…Research on blogs also explores the potential role of blogging in improving health awareness, education, and research (Anonymous, 2009;Boulos, Maramba, & Wheeler, 2006). Some examination of comparatively large samples of health-related blogs has taken place (Clauson, Ekins, & Goncz, 2010;Kovic, Lulic, & Brumni, 2008;Lagu, Kaufman, Asch, & Armstrong, 2008;Miller & Pole, 2009;Miller, Pole, & Bateman, 2011;Wagner, Paquin, & Persky, 2012). By contrast, there has been little systematic research reported on the content and characteristics of mental-health blogs; most of what has been reported consists of small samples focusing on particular mental-health topics and/or populations (Clark & Lang, 2012;Marcus, Westra, Eastwood, & Barnes, 2012;Sundar, Edwards, Hu, & Stavrositu, 2007;Tong, Heinemann-Lafave, Jeon, Kolodziej-Smith, & Warshay, 2013).…”

“…Previously, we examined the content and characteristics of 951 health blogs identified during (Miller & Pole, 2009Miller et al, 2011). Approximately one fifth, or 188 of the 951 blogs analyzed, focused on mental health, including autism spectrum disorder (26.6 percent), bipolar disorder (25.5 percent), eating disorders (22.9 percent), depression (4.8 percent), Down syndrome (4.2 percent), schizophrenia (2.6 percent), and general mental health (13.3 percent).…”