Table 1 Overview of included studies in the literature review

2005

[13]

Journal of Sociology

To explore the experiences of, and attitudes towards, online support groups

Qualitative

Interviews

33 Australian men with prostate cancer and 18 specialists

2008

[22]

Journal of Medical Internet Research

To explore whether lurkers in online patient support groups profit to the same extent as posters do

Quantitative

Online survey

528 members of Dutch online support groups for patients with breast cancer, fibromyalgia, and arthritis

2008

[28]

Journal of Medical Internet Research

To identify and analyse how users of the platform PatientsLikeMe reference personal health information within patient-to-patient dialogues

Qualitative

Analysis of comments

123 comments posted within the ALS community

2010

[15]

New Review of Hypermedia & Multimedia

To understand why and how people use health-related sites

Quantitative

Online survey

33 Patients with a medical condition (patients)

2010

[27]

Pedriatic Transplantation

To investigate the feasibility and safety of an online virtual community as a potential psychosocial intervention for post-transplant adolescents

Qualitative and Quantitative

Data analysis of the Zora system logs and interviews

22 patients with solid organ transplants aged between 11-15 years

2010

[35]

Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology

To focus on investigating the perceived disadvantages of online infertility support communities from the perspective of those who access and participate in them

Qualitative and Quantitative

Online survey

295 participants coping with fertility problems

2010

[36].

Journal of Medical Internet Research

To describe the potential benefits of PatientsLikeMe in terms of treatment decisions, symptom management, clinical management, and outcomes

Quantitative

Online survey

1323 members from six PatientsLikeMe communities (ALS, MS, Parkinson’s Disease, HIV, fibromyalgia, and mood disorders)

2011

[23]

Patient Education and Counseling

To investigate the potential of online support groups to foster empowerment and how membership might affect the patient/health professional relationship

Quantitative

Online survey

246 individuals from 33 chronic conditions online support groups

2011

[26]

Journal of Medical Internet Research

To explore the differences in peer support received by lurkers and posters in online breast cancer communities

Quantitative

Online survey

253 members of four Japanese online breast cancer communities

2012

[16]

Journal of Medical Internet research

To explore the motivations and challenges faced by patients who share videos about their health and experiences on YouTube

Qualitative

Analysis of videos

Videos uploaded by 4 patients with a chronic condition

2012

[30]

Health Communication

To examine the indirect effect of Computer Mediated Social Support on doctor–patient communication through utilizing the sense of empowerment

Quantitative

Online survey

464 Korean patients with diabetes

2012

[38]

Information Research

To examine the use of an online health forum by married Korean women living in the USA who sought help for health and medical issues

Qualitative

Content analysis of posts

1000 messages posted to a health forum MissyUSA

2013

[14]

International Journal of Medical Informatics

To investigate whether communication in online patient support groups is a source of individual as well as collective empowerment or to be understood within the tradition of compliance

Qualitative

Analysis of posts

4301 posts from two online communities, one for patients with COPD and one for women with pregnancy problems

2013

[24]

Journal of Health Psychology

To explore how cancer patients’ writing and reading on the Internet play a role in their conditions experience

Qualitative

Focus-group interviews

34 Cancer patients

2013

[25]

JRSM short reports

To explore how participation in an online support community may impact upon the experience of inflammatory bowel disease

Qualitative and Quantitative

Online survey

249 patients living with either Crohn’s Disease (65.9 %) or Ulcerative Colitis (26.1 %) or awaiting formal diagnosis (8 %)

2013

[34]

Nordic Journal of Psychiatry

To evaluate if and how online self-help forums are used by patients with bipolar disorders, their relatives and treating professionals

Qualitative and Quantitative

Content analysis of posts

2400 postings of 218 users (Patients with Bipolar Disorder (94 %), Relatives (4 %), or Professionals (2 %))

2014

[1]

Patient Education & Counseling

To explore how individuals use online health community content in clinical discussions and how healthcare providers react to it

Qualitative

Focus groups

89 members of an online health community

2014

[17]

Obstetrics & Gynecology

To determine whether social media, specifically Facebook, is an effective tool for improving contraceptive knowledge

Quantitative

Survey

143 Patients who had scheduled a routine visit to a gynaecologist

2014

[21]

Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine

To explore the potentials of social networking sites as an adjunctive treatment modality for initiating treatment contact as well as for managing psychological problems

Qualitative and Quantitative

Interviews and an online survey

28 patients with any of the depressive or anxiety spectrum disorder

2014

[37]

Reproductive Health

To use the online platform of blogs to explore whether the framing effect of information content, situated learning of information content, and health knowledge involvement would affect health communication between doctors and patients and further explore whether this would increase patient willingness to seek treatment

Quantitative

Online survey

278 participants who were seeking medical treatment in a clinic or hospital in Taiwan

2014

[39]

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

To describe adults who use Twitter during a weight loss attempt and to compare the positive and negative social influences they experience from their offline friends, online friends, and family members

Qualitative and Quantitative

Survey

100 participants trying to lose weight

2016

[40]

Counselling Psychology Quarterly

To test for differences between offline and online psychological disclosure in case of young adults

Quantitative

Survey

128 young adults attending individual psychotherapy.