Social Media in Health

Social media offers an excellent outlet for social support as people with different medical conditions can connect and provide and receive informational support content (Junhan & Wang, 2021). Moreover, people can offer and receive emotional support and network support to better manage and cope with their medical condition.

Research in the field demonstrated that people with health concerns benefit from participating in online communities by suffering from less discrimination and stigmatization, receiving support promptly, and having a sense of control over the help-seeking process. Overall, it was found that online communities offered better perceived social support and predicted increased subjective well-being of users (Junhan & Wang, 2021).