title: Social Network Behavior and Engagement Within a Smoking Cessation Facebook Page.
abstract: Social media platforms are increasingly being used to support individuals in behavior change attempts, including smoking cessation. Examining the interactions of participants in health-related social media groups can help inform our understanding of how these groups can best be leveraged to facilitate behavior change.
  
  
  
  The aim of this study was to analyze patterns of participation, self-reported smoking cessation length, and interactions within the National Cancer Institutes' Facebook community for smoking cessation support.
  
  
  
  Our sample consisted of approximately 4243 individuals who interacted (eg, posted, commented) on the public Smokefree Women Facebook page during the time of data collection. In Phase 1, social network visualizations and centrality measures were used to evaluate network structure and engagement. In Phase 2, an inductive, thematic qualitative content analysis was conducted with a subsample of 500 individuals, and correlational analysis was used to determine how participant engagement was associated with self-reported session length.
  
  
  
  Between February 2013 and March 2014, there were 875 posts and 4088 comments from approximately 4243 participants. Social network visualizations revealed the moderator's role in keeping the community together and distributing the most active participants. Correlation analyses suggest that engagement in the network was significantly inversely associated with cessation status (Spearman correlation coefficient = -0.14, P=.03, N=243). The content analysis of 1698 posts from 500 randomly selected participants identified the most frequent interactions in the community as providing support (43%, n=721) and announcing number of days smoke free (41%, n=689).
  
  
  
  These findings highlight the importance of the moderator for network engagement and provide helpful insights into the patterns and types of interactions participants are engaging in. This study adds knowledge of how the social network of a smoking cessation community behaves within the confines of a Facebook group.
authors.affiliation: ICF International, Rockville, MD, United States.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7275-1810
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cole-Lewis
authors.forename: Adler
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6695-0282
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perotte
authors.forename: Kasia
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9375-8993
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Galica
authors.forename: Lindy
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3654-1477
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dreyer
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7950-8074
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Griffith
authors.forename: Mary
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0482-7323
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6747-4628
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.forename: Heather
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3078-5606
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Patrick
authors.forename: Kisha
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5637-259X
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Coa
authors.forename: Erik
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9723-4078
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Augustson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012919:Social Behavior; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D060756:Social Networking; D012944:Social Support
keywords: Facebook; Web-based communities; communication; smoking cessation; social media; social network analysis; social support