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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—As we step into a new year, we encounter countless messages promoting weight loss plans, exercise programs and more. Despite the prevalence of smartwatches, fitness influencers and health-related information, it’s understandable to feel overwhelmed. Often, we find ourselves falling short or giving up altogether.

But what if you could harness the power of social media platforms to help you reach your goals? Dr. Jiahe (Carrie) Song, associate professor of business information systems at ɫɫ�� Michigan University, recently published research that delves into this question with interesting applications for both consumers and health care providers.

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronic diseases affect 60% of the American population and are leading drivers of annual health care costs. As social media has evolved, the use of online health communities is democratizing self-care goal management that used to be guided by health care professionals,” Song explains. “The current reality is that we can easily access self-care technology and track our health, but many of us often miss out on online social interaction when striving to achieve a health milestone.” 

Song and her research partner Dr. Pei Xu, associate professor of business analytics at Auburn University, compiled a unique data set from a leading online health community in the U.S. to uncover the effect of online self-regulation and social support on goal performance for chronic disease self-care.

Their study, “,” employed skilled analysis of the data, with results that prove to online health community leaders that health goal setting can be a great tool to enable online peer-generated conversations leading to better self-management of patients.

 “Although the use of online health communities for health goal management has become ubiquitous, success stories about a person being able to attain health goals due to such communities are not heard frequently,” says Song. “This is because the mechanisms through which patients may generate better goal performance in these communities are still largely unknown.”

The study completed by Song and Xu uncovered important data about what factors contribute to or impede users’ success when using an online health community. 

Key findings of the study

• Emotional support gathered from an online health community can motivate patients with physical health goals to be more active in the community.
• Receiving informational support can help users generate greater progress and be more active in the online community.
• When patients conduct more online self-reflection about their health practices, they can generate greater progress on their goals.
• It is important for the online health community to actively monitor forums; distracting information leads to decreased goal updates and hampers progress.
• Online health communities can be beneficial in helping patients meet health goals, leading to long-lasting health and lower health care cost.

“Online health communities are a great tool to help chronic disease patients manage their health goals. Yet, whether they can navigate from one goal to the next and experience success depends on a collective effort from the patients themselves, their online peers and the website administrators,” says Song. “It’s important for patients with chronic diseases to know the tools that are available online and develop a strategy that meets their needs.”

As technology continues to play an increasing role in health management, Song and Xu’s research shows that it is important for both users and providers to manage this tool in an effective manner.

“With the progression of artificial intelligence, generative AI and chatbots, it is imperative for providers to design online health communities in an intelligent manner for effective goal performance and chronic disease self-care,” Song concludes.

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