Investigating relationships among cancer survivors' engagement in an online support community, social support perceptions, well-being, and moderating effects of existing (offline) social support

摘要

Purpose Socially supportive relationships help cancer survivors cope with their diagnosis and may improve quality of life; however, many survivors report unmet support and information needs. Online communities of survivors may address these needs, but research on their benefits have been equivocal. This cross-sectional, self-report study investigated relationships among cancer survivors' level of engagement in an online survivor community (The American Cancer Society Cancer Survivors Network (R); CSN), perceptions of emotional/informational support available from online communities ("online social support"), well-being, and moderating effects of "offline social support." Methods Participants were 1255 registered users of the CSN who completed surveys between 2013 and 2014. Three types of engagement with the CSN-social/communal,interpersonal communication, andinformational/searchengagement-were identified through principal components analysis. Regression analyses examined hypotheses. Results More frequentsocial/communalandinterpersonal communicationengagement were associated with increased online social support (p < .0001), and the relationship betweeninterpersonal communicationengagement and online social support was strongest for survivors reporting lower offline social support (interaction beta = - .35,p < .001). Greater online social support was associated with increased well-being, but only among survivors reporting low offline social support (interaction beta = - .35,p < .0001). Conclusions Engagement in online survivor communities may increase support perceptions that promote well-being, but benefits may accrue more to survivors reporting low offline social support. Implications for Cancer survivors Newly diagnosed cancer survivors, particularly those with unmet emotional/informational support needs, should be given the opportunity to communicate with other survivors through online survivor support networks.