Healthcare blogs have a unique advantage that can impact readers’ health behaviors. Previous research has found that personal stories based on real patients’ experiences are highly effective at driving preventative health intentions.
A new study corroborates this finding and extends the results by testing 3 blog conditions: a personal narrative, a general cancer story, and a statistics condition. The results indicate that the type of blog significantly impacts health intention, but perceptions of disease risk and locus of control do not mediate this effect.
Share Your Experiences
Bloggers can help to raise awareness about mental health issues by sharing their personal experiences, and by encouraging others to prioritize their own well-being. They can also provide a forum for those without access to other forms of support to discuss their struggles, share advice and tips, and build a community.
In a study that surveyed actual blog readers, participants who read a blog excerpt about melanoma reported greater intentions to take preventative health action than those who did not read the blog excerpt (the control condition). The impact of the blogging type on these intentions was partially mediated through perceived barriers, but the effects of the personal narrative and informative statistics conditions were comparable.
Similarly, in another nonexperimental study that surveyed real medical blog readers, participants who read a melanoma blog reported higher intentions to take a cancer screening than those who did not read the blog excerpt. The researchers found that the blog excerpts were rated as easy to read, understand, and interesting, but the effect of the writing style on these intentions was not significant.
Connect With Others
Health blogs can inspire people to improve their lives by teaching them about healthy eating, new exercise techniques or even new places to travel. They can also motivate readers to take control of their mental health.
Studies of blogging by caregivers—such as parents of ill children or adult children caring for elderly parents—have found that the main reasons people write and read such blogs include reporting and explaining events, sharing feelings, expressing emotions, reflecting and building legacies. Many of these bloggers are inspired by their own experiences to encourage others to seek help and prioritize their mental well-being.
A recent study surveyed self-described medical blog readers and asked them about their intentions to take specific future health actions. Findings showed that reading patient blogs influenced intention to perform preventative medical behaviors, including self-monitoring (i.e., skin or breast checks) and scheduling a doctor appointment. However, the research showed that the type of blog did not influence perceptions of disease risk or perceived susceptibility to a particular condition.
Learn From the Experts
Blogging is a great way to highlight your expertise and demonstrate that you have the resources to address a topic. Creating a FAQ post about popular procedures you perform or sharing information about new advancements in medical equipment is an excellent way to provide valuable content that can capture the attention of potential patients.
Researchers surveyed participants about their reading experiences and found that blog readers reported intentions to take preventative health actions based on the blogs they read. The results of 2 experimental studies and 1 qualitative study supported the first research objective, indicating that reading medical blogs leads to increased health intentions, regardless of whether the blog is personal, statistical or control.
Readers cited the greatest motivations for reading medical blogs as being to stay updated on a friend’s or family member’s condition (23/45 respondents), feeling connected to the person, or learning something that could help them avoid a similar situation (12/45). These results suggest that blogging can be effective at raising mental health awareness.
Stay Active
Just as a well-rounded diet is important for a healthy lifestyle, staying physically active is key to your overall health and wellness. Incorporating routine exercise into your daily life can help you maintain a healthy weight, lower blood pressure, and prevent a number of age-related illnesses.
Across 2 experimental, scenario-based studies with different sample populations and 3 qualitative surveys of real blog readers, we found that reading medical blogs can influence people’s intentions to take protective health behaviors, and that the type of blog influences those outcomes (e.g., statistical vs personal narrative). Readers’ perceptions of their own disease risk did not mediate the effect of the blog on intentions in either study.
In Study 1, participants rated the blog excerpts they read on various dimensions, including how easy to understand, informative, and emotional they were. Despite these evaluations, the blog types differed in their ability to affect people’s intentions, highlighting the need for specific blog characteristics to be targeted in interventions. If you want to dive deeper into the world of blogs, click here or explore our official website for valuable insights.