title: Health Vlogs as Social Support for Chronic Illness Management.
abstract: Studies have shown positive impact of video blogs (vlogs) on patient education. However, we know little on how patient-initiated vlogs shape the relationships among vloggers and viewers. We qualitatively analyzed 72 vlogs on YouTube by users diagnosed with HIV, diabetes, or cancer and 1,274 comments posted to the vlogs to understand viewers' perspectives on the vlogs. We found that the unique video medium allowed intense and enriched personal and contextual disclosure to the viewers, leading to strong community-building activities and social support among vloggers and commenters, both informationally and emotionally. Furthermore, the unique communication structure of the vlogs allowed ad hoc small groups to form, which showed different group behavior than typical text-based social media, such as online communities. We provide implications to the Health Care Industry (HCI) community on how future technologies for health vlogs could be designed to further support chronic illness management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University, 404 Wilson Road, Rm 409 (office: 418), East Lansing, MI 48824.
authors.forename: Jina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huh
authors.affiliation: Biomedical and Health Informatics, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington, Box SLU-BIME 358047, 850 Republican St, Building C Seattle, WA 98109-4714.
authors.forename: Leslie S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine, University of Washington, Department of Family Medicine, C408 Health Sciences, 1959 NE Pacific St, Seattle, WA 98195-6390.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Neogi
authors.affiliation: Microsoft Research, One Microsoft Way, Redmond WA 98052 USA.
authors.forename: Kori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inkpen
authors.affiliation: The Information School, University of Washington, MGH 330S, Box 352840, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-2840.
authors.forename: Wanda
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pratt
keywords: Chronic illness; Health vlogs; YouTube; peer-patient