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. 2013 Aug;101(2):e39-45.
doi: 10.5935/abc.20130161.

Health social networks as online life support groups for patients with cardiovascular diseases

[Article in English, Portuguese]
Edhelmira Lima Medina, Orlando Loques Filho, Cláudio Tinoco Mesquita

Health social networks as online life support groups for patients with cardiovascular diseases

[Article in English, Portuguese]
Edhelmira Lima Medina et al. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2013 Aug.

Abstract

The number of patients who use the internet in search for information that might improve their health conditions has increased. Among them, those looking for virtual environments to share experiences, doubts, opinions, and emotions, and to foster relationships aimed at giving and getting support stand out. Therefore, there is an increasing need to assess how those environments can affect the patients' health. This study was aimed at identifying scientific studies on the proliferation and impact of virtual communities, known as health social networks or online support groups,directed to cardiovascular diseases, which might be useful to patients with certain conditions, providing them with information and emotional support. A systematic review of the literature was conducted with articles published from 2007 to 2012, related to cardiovascular diseases and collected from the following databases: PubMed; Association for Computing Machinery(ACM); and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Four articles meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. The results were interesting and relevant from the health viewpoint, identifying therapeutic benefits, such as provision of emotional support, greater compliance to treatment, and information sharing on diseases and on life experiences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential Conflict of Interest: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
General model of a social health network.4
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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