Smartphone ownership is increasing, which means users have continuous access to online media. This technology can be used for self-monitoring health and wellbeing. The benefits and uses of web-based media are of particular interest in healthcare research, especially as people are more frequently turning to online sources for healthcare information than ever before.

Evidence suggests people with chronic health conditions are turning to online sources for information on how to manage their illness. Our research group are particularly interested in online media use in people with neurological conditions. Long term health conditions such as epilepsy and migraine are distinct from physical conditions because they do not have visible identifiers. Many people may not reveal their health condition and choose to keep this a secret. Therefore, the way people with epilepsy and migraine interact with web-based media is important to understand as these uses may be different from other groups.

Why might people with epilepsy or migraine want web-based health information about their condition?

People with chronic health conditions often turn to online sources for information, and increasingly for support from other users as well. During this project, we focused on the experiences of people with epilepsy and migraine, and how they use web-based media to help self-manage their condition.

We aimed to learn more about the ways that people with epilepsy and migraine use web-based media, to see how these platforms might be helpful. To achieve these study aims, we held face-to-face interviews with a group of people who experience both of these conditions. Our studies indicate that people with epilepsy and those with migraine experience many benefits from using and/or contributing to web-based media, but there were caveats...

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Research methodology

Benefits and uses of social media by people with epilepsy and migraine

Recommendations

Reflections on what we learned from the research