Sinha Ashnish, Porter Tom, Wilson Andrew
Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
J Med Internet Res. 2018 Jan 24;20(1):e19. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7975.
Online health discussion forums are used by different patient groups for sharing advice and information. Chronic cough is a common problem, and people with chronic cough use online health forums alongside formal medical therapies.
The objective of this study was to assess how chronic cough sufferers use online health forums, including the treatment advice they share with one another and the possible clinical uses of online forums in chronic cough.
Three open-access health forums were searched for threads related to chronic cough. Identified threads were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria adapted from the British Thoracic Society (BTS) Guidelines related to chronic cough diagnosis. Included data were subjected to qualitative thematic analysis. All study data were cross-validated by a second author and discrepancies were resolved.
In total, 96 threads were included in the analysis, consisting of posts by 223 forum users. Three main themes were identified: the effect of chronic cough on the lives of patients, the treatment advice shared between users, and the provision of support within forums.
Chronic cough symptoms had impacts on multiple aspects of patients' health and well-being. To try and combat these issues, forum users suggested a variety of treatments to one another, ranging from mainstream traditional therapies to odd alternative remedies. The provision of support and empathy were also prominent themes in discussion threads. Online forums themselves may provide increasing benefit to users through the addition of a moderator.
不同患者群体使用在线健康讨论论坛来分享建议和信息。慢性咳嗽是一个常见问题，慢性咳嗽患者在接受正规医学治疗的同时也会使用在线健康论坛。
本研究的目的是评估慢性咳嗽患者如何使用在线健康论坛，包括他们相互分享的治疗建议以及在线论坛在慢性咳嗽方面可能的临床用途。
在三个开放获取的健康论坛中搜索与慢性咳嗽相关的主题帖。根据英国胸科学会（BTS）慢性咳嗽诊断指南改编的纳入和排除标准对识别出的主题帖进行筛选。纳入的数据进行定性主题分析。所有研究数据由第二作者进行交叉验证，差异得到解决。
总共96个主题帖被纳入分析，由223名论坛用户的帖子组成。确定了三个主要主题：慢性咳嗽对患者生活的影响、用户之间分享的治疗建议以及论坛内的支持提供。
慢性咳嗽症状对患者的健康和幸福的多个方面都有影响。为了试图解决这些问题，论坛用户相互建议了各种治疗方法，从主流传统疗法到奇特的替代疗法。支持和同理心的提供也是讨论主题帖中的突出主题。通过增加版主，在线论坛本身可能会为用户带来更多益处。
