Interdisciplinary Research Team on Internet and Society, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Jun 13;24(6):e31148. doi: 10.2196/31148.
Users with experience of eating disorders use the internet as a source of information, whether for prorecovery activities (such as web-based treatment, looking for information, support, and sharing) or activities that promote eating disorder behavior as a desirable lifestyle choice (such as pro-eating disorder communities and reading and creating pro-eating disorder posts). Their assessment of web-based eating disorder-related information is crucial for understanding the context of the illness and for health professionals and their web-based interventions.
This study aimed to understand the criteria young women with the experience of eating disorders use in evaluating eating disorder-related web-based information and what eating disorder-related characteristics of these women are involved in their evaluation.
We analyzed 30 semistructured individual interviews with Czech women aged 16 to 28 years with past or present eating disorder experience using a qualitative approach. Thematic analysis was adopted as an analytical tool.
The specifics of eating disorder phases (the disorder stage and the treatment process) emerged as important aspects in the process of information assessment. Other specific characteristics of respondents (eg, motivation, abilities, and resources) addressed how the respondents arrived at certain web-based information and how they evaluated it. In addition, the respondents described some content cues as features of information (eg, novelty and social information pooling). Another finding is that other users' attitudes, experiences, activities, and personal features are involved in the information evaluation of these users and the information presented by them. Finally, the respondents evaluated the websites' visual look and graphic components.
This study shows that web-based information evaluation reported by women with experience of eating disorders is a complex process. The assessment is influenced by current personal characteristics related to the illness (mainly the motivation for maintaining or curing the eating disorder) using cues associated with information content, other users, and website look. The study findings have important implications for health professionals, who should ask their clients questions about web-based communities and their needs to understand what information and sources they choose.
有进食障碍经历的用户会将互联网作为信息来源，无论是用于促进康复的活动（如基于网络的治疗、查找信息、支持和分享），还是促进进食障碍行为成为理想生活方式选择的活动（如支持进食障碍的社区以及阅读和创建支持进食障碍的帖子）。他们对基于网络的与饮食失调相关的信息的评估对于了解疾病的背景以及对于卫生专业人员及其基于网络的干预措施至关重要。
本研究旨在了解有进食障碍经历的年轻女性在评估与饮食失调相关的网络信息时使用的标准，以及这些女性在评估中涉及的与饮食失调相关的哪些特征。
我们采用定性方法分析了 30 名年龄在 16 至 28 岁之间、有过去或现在进食障碍经历的捷克女性的半结构化个体访谈。采用主题分析作为分析工具。
饮食障碍阶段的特殊性（疾病阶段和治疗过程）是信息评估过程中的重要方面。受访者的其他特定特征（例如动机、能力和资源）涉及受访者如何获得某些基于网络的信息以及如何评估它。此外，受访者描述了一些内容线索作为信息的特征（例如新颖性和社会信息汇集）。另一个发现是，其他用户的态度、经验、活动和个人特征涉及这些用户对信息的评估以及他们所呈现的信息。最后，受访者评估了网站的视觉外观和图形组件。
本研究表明，有进食障碍经历的女性报告的基于网络的信息评估是一个复杂的过程。评估受到与疾病相关的当前个人特征（主要是维持或治愈进食障碍的动机）的影响，这些特征与信息内容、其他用户和网站外观相关的线索有关。研究结果对卫生专业人员具有重要意义，他们应该向客户询问有关基于网络的社区及其需求的问题，以了解他们选择哪些信息和来源。
