Patients With Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators on Social Media Report More Shock Anxiety Than Clinic Patients: Results From an Online Survey

BACKGROUND: Coping with heart disease and the potential for implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) shocks challenges the psychological adjustment of patients with ICDs. Social media use may be used to seek education and support from others. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the content of information sought online and whether a social media sample of patients with ICDs report more device-specific anxiety than clinic-based normative samples. METHODS: A total of 196 participants were recruited via social media messages and invited to complete an online survey. RESULTS: It was found that the information most often sought by online users (62.4%, 123/196) involved both emotional support (eg, gaining emotional support from other patients with ICDs) and technical information (52.6%, 103/196) (eg, dealing with magnetic interference). The online sample reported more shock anxiety than a typical clinical sample with mean values of 22.75 (SD 10.06) and 15.18 (SD 6.50), respectively (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these results suggest that patients with ICDs that are online are seeking emotional information and support, and that they report increased shock anxiety relative to typical clinic-based patients. Future research should examine how online information and clinical-based information form a composite understanding and adjustment for patients ICDs.