A novel information sharing framework for people living with type-2 diabetes in the context of a group education program

PURPOSE: Online health communities (OHCs) offer opportunities for people with type-2 diabetes to share information and experiences for self improvement. This study is to introduce a novel framework for identifying the potential of online diabetes communities’ practices and outcomes in empowering people living with diabetes. METHOD: : Using a qualitative tradition, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 members of these communities, attempting to answer research question: how an online framework for diabetes community can be outlined for empowering patients in their self-management in the context of DGEP. We also analysed 2312 threads shared in the three popular type-2 diabetes Reddit communities (r/diabetes, r/diabetes_t2, and r/type2diabetes) comprising more than 60,000 members.? RESULTS: Using thematic analysis, the study identifies three salient themes: (a) Leverage digital health technologies to ubiquitous access, share and integrate resources, (b) Community encouragement in self-care and self-monitoring, and (c) Improve mental well-being by experiencing commonality. Statistically, on average 87% of the participants contended that they would benefit the OHC framework for keeping them interconnected to the program. Furthermore, expert interviews with the healthcare team have been carried out for evaluating the usability and efficiency of the framework. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed information-sharing framework promotes patients’ self-management of diabetes, revealing that patient participation in diabetes OHC leads to empowering self-management of their diabetes and in turns shedding some light on how healthcare organizations can improve patients’ information behaviour through OHC provisions. This qualitative study suggested that the proposed novel framework is perceived as a useful platform to empower diabetic patients in their self-management, extending value of physical group activities.