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Online social support for cancer caregivers: alignment between requests and offers on CaringBridge
Rosaleen Duggan Bloom1,2, Maija Reblin3, Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou4
1St David's School of Nursing, Texas State University, Round Rock, Texas, USA.
Objectives:
Exploring CaringBridge, we describe types of social support caregivers requested, types of social support offered, and the alignment between the two.
Research Approach:
A retrospective, longitudinal, descriptive approach.
Sample:
Twenty public CaringBridge sites.
Methodological Approach:
The Social Support Behavior Code system was adapted and applied to cancer-caregiver journal entries (n = 389) and guestbook posts (n = 2,466) to identify types of support (emotional, esteem, informational, network, tangible, and no support requested/offered). Matches between requests and offers were examined.
Findings:
Cancer caregivers requested different types of support from their guests, most commonly emotional support. However, in most posts, caregivers did not request any support (n = 238, 61.18%). Guests offered all support types, but predominately offered emotional support (n = 2,353, 95%). When support was requested, 66.67% of requests received a matched offer within 24 hours.
Interpretation:
Social media platforms may provide all types of support to caregivers.
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