Jill Mara Plevinsky*, Tufts University, Medford, United States Linda Goldenhar, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, United States Track: Research Presentation Topic: Building virtual communities and social networking applications for patients and consumers Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: LKSC Conference Center Stanford Room: Lower Lobby Date: 2011-09-17 12:30 PM – 01:30 PM Last modified: 2011-08-12

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The purpose of this feasibility study was to assess the degree of social interaction among participants on IBD-specific Facebook groups through evaluating the number and type of responses to posts. The hypothesis was that individuals will seek higher levels of social interaction in response to issues regarding diet and peer acceptance compared to more stigmatized matters such as drug and treatment options or side effects. Three scenarios and associated questions were created regarding drug/treatment concerns, diet, and peer acceptance with respect to IBD. They were posted to a total of twelve sites by one female and one male adolescent currently living with IBD. It was found that peer acceptance posts elicited the most responses (24) and the longest responses on average with a mean value of 249 characters per post. The diet posts elicited the second most responses (21) and the second longest responses by a small margin with a mean value of 1.58 characters per post, but resulted in the most friend requests (2), and “likes” (7). Some reasons for this may include a greater degree of comfort sharing non-medically related experiences. Drug/treatment concerns were the least discussed and least engaging posts altogether suggesting that peer acceptance and diet take precedence over drug/treatment concerns in the search for online information and social support via IBD-specific Facebook groups and pages. Findings from this pilot study may be useful for increasing our understanding of how to use disease specific social networking sites to support participating individuals in their quest to obtain valid and reliable information that can be used to help them manage their disease.