Building Health Information Networks Using Facebook: A Pilot Study with New Mothers in Rural Appalachia

ABSTRACT

This qualitative inquiry studies the key factors influencing the process of building, growing, and sustaining a health information network among new mothers on Facebook, who live in Appalachian Tennessee. Grounded theory analysis of in-depth phone interviews reveal that (i) realizing information needs, (ii) turning to the Internet and social media, (iii) joining the Facebook group, (iv) building a community of practice on the group, (v) information practices of users, and (vi) deriving benefits to meet the information needs, help them build the health information network.

References

1. Evans, M., Donelle, L., & Hume-Loveland, L. (2012). Social support and online postpartum depression discussion groups: A content analysis. Patient education and counseling, 87(3), 405--410..
2. Potnis, D., Chengalur-Smith, I., & Mishra, G. (2017). Information networks for bridging information divide in isolated communities of farmers in rural India, Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 54(1), 781--783.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Collaborative and social computing

    • Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms

      • Social media

      • Social networks

• Information systems

  • Information systems applications

    • Collaborative and social computing systems and tools

      • Social networking sites

  • World Wide Web

    • Web applications

      • Social networks

• Networks

  • Network types

    • Overlay and other logical network structures

      • Online social networks