Lewinski Allison A, Anderson Ruth A, Vorderstrasse Allison A, Fisher Edwin B, Pan Wei, Johnson Constance M
Duke University School of Nursing, Durham, NC, United States.
School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2017 Apr 24;6(4):e65. doi: 10.2196/resprot.7442.
Individuals with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk for comorbidities such as heart disease, lower limb amputations, stroke, and renal failure. Multiple factors influence development of complications in a person living with type 2 diabetes; however, an individual's self-management behaviors may delay the onset of, or lessen the severity of, these complications. Social support provides personal, informal advice and knowledge that helps individuals initiate and sustain self-management and adherence.
Our aim was to gain an understanding of type 2 diabetes social interaction in a virtual environment, one type of computer-mediated environment (CME), and the social support characteristics that increase and sustain self-management in adults living with chronic illness.
This study is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data collected in a CME study, Second Life Impacts Diabetes Education & Self-Management (1R21-LM010727-01). This virtual environment replicated a real-life community where 6 months of naturalistic synchronous voice conversations, emails, and text chats were recorded among participants and providers. This analysis uses a mixed-methods approach to explore and compare qualitative and quantitative findings. This analysis is guided by two theories: Strong/Weak Ties Theory and Social Penetration Theory. Qualitative data will be analyzed using content analysis, and we will complete descriptive statistics on the quantified variables (eg, average number of ties). Institutional review board approval was obtained in June 2016.
This study is in progress.
Interventions provided through virtual environments are a promising solution to increasing self-management practices. However, little is known of the depth, breadth, and quality of social support that is exchanged and how interaction supports self-management and relates to health outcomes. This study will provide knowledge that will help guide clinical practice and policy to enhance social support for chronic illness via the Internet.
2型糖尿病患者患心脏病、下肢截肢、中风和肾衰竭等合并症的风险增加。多种因素会影响2型糖尿病患者并发症的发生；然而，个人的自我管理行为可能会延迟这些并发症的发作或减轻其严重程度。社会支持提供个人的、非正式的建议和知识，有助于个人启动并维持自我管理及依从性。
我们的目标是了解虚拟环境（一种计算机介导环境，CME）中的2型糖尿病社交互动，以及在患有慢性病的成年人中增强并维持自我管理的社会支持特征。
本研究是对在一项CME研究“第二人生对糖尿病教育与自我管理的影响”（1R21-LM010727-01）中收集的纵向数据进行的二次分析。这个虚拟环境复制了一个现实生活社区，在参与者和提供者之间记录了6个月的自然同步语音对话、电子邮件和文本聊天。本分析采用混合方法来探索和比较定性与定量研究结果。该分析以两种理论为指导：强/弱关系理论和社会渗透理论。定性数据将采用内容分析法进行分析，我们将对量化变量（如平均关系数量）进行描述性统计。2016年6月获得了机构审查委员会的批准。
本研究正在进行中。
通过虚拟环境提供的干预措施是增加自我管理实践的一个有前景的解决方案。然而，对于所交换的社会支持的深度、广度和质量，以及互动如何支持自我管理并与健康结果相关，我们知之甚少。本研究将提供有助于指导临床实践和政策制定的知识，以通过互联网加强对慢性病的社会支持。
