Online discussion groups for bulimia nervosa: an inductive approach to Internet-based communication between patients.
OBJECTIVE
Online discussion forums are often used by people with eating disorders.


METHODS
This study analyses 2,072 threads containing a total of 14,903 postings from an unmoderated German "prorecovery" forum for persons suffering from bulimia nervosa (www.ab-server.de) during the period from October 2004 to May 2006. The threads were inductively analyzed for underlying structural types, and the various types found were then analyzed for differences in temporal and quantitative parameters.


RESULTS
Communication in the online discussion forum occurred in three types of thread: (1) problem-oriented threads (78.8% of threads), (2) communication-oriented threads (15.3% of threads), and (3) metacommunication threads (2.6% of threads). Metacommunication threads contained significantly more postings than problem-oriented and communication-oriented threads, and they were viewed significantly more often. Moreover, there are temporal differences between the structural types.


CONCLUSIONS
Topics relating to active management of the disorder receive great attention in prorecovery forums.
Wesemann
Dorette
D
Faculty of Medicine, Institut for Brain Research, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. dorette.wesemann@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Grunwald
Martin
M
D001294:Attitude to Health; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D003142:Communication; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010361:Patients