Peer support for chronic pain on social media: A cross-sectional study on casual support interactions

Casual interactions on social networking sites represent a popular form of social support for medical concerns, but the impact of these exchanges on the experience of chronic pain is not fully understood. This study investigates the association between peer support receipt in social media-based online health communities and chronic pain-related distress. In addition, qualitative analysis is applied to explore how users believe online health communities can be enhanced to improve their online support experiences. A sample of 197 individuals experiencing chronic pain who were active in social media online health communities answered questions about their physical and mental well-being, e-health literacy, and social media usage. Informed by the stress-buffering and direct-effect models of social support, pain-related distress was compared to pain intensity, received support, and perceived support. A two-way interaction between received and perceived support predicted aspects of pain-related distress, such that users reporting increased received and perceived support also reported lower pain interference (β = -.10, p =.027), fewer pain catastrophizing thoughts (β = -.10, p =.049), and retrospectively reported decreases in pain intensity (β =.13, p =.024). Furthermore, there was a positive association between e-health literacy and the amount of informational and emotional support that participants reported from social media resources (β =.22, p =.001). Implications for chronic pain self-management are discussed, and practical recommendations for improving user experience in online health communities are developed from first-hand participant accounts. PERSPECTIVE: Casual support interactions on social media were associated with well-being and several directions for improving online support outcomes were identified.