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A new study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University that analyzed 502 posts on Pinterest about chronic pain revealed that the social media platform is helping people with chronic pain cope by sharing self care and pain management tips, venting about their pain’s severity, and supporting others who are similarly suffering.
“We’re seeing that Pinterest is being used by patients to really support each other, to provide information for each other, and to just find an outlet for dealing with chronic pain,” said Guidry, who studies visual social media and mobile technology in health, risk, and crisis communication and message design. Of the 502 posts, or pins, the researchers analysed, nearly all (98.6 percent) referred in some way to the severity of chronic pain. Roughly one-third (32.9 percent) expressed a high level of perceived benefit for self care, while 10 percent described a high level of barriers to self care.
Tips for chronic pain management were present in 35.3 percent of posts, while tips for caregivers or friends were present in 17.9 percent.
Just under 22 percent mentioned a specific disease associated with chronic pain, and of these fibromyalgia was mentioned most frequently (13.3 percent of all posts), followed by arthritis (6.4 percent). Two conditions currently under the microscope of Dr Neil’s PhD.
Almost half the sample (47.4 percent) referred in some way to problem-focused coping, while only 15.7 percent dealt with emotion-focused coping. Nearly a quarter (22.9 percent) of all posts were primarily venting about chronic pain, while 14.9 percent were humorous and just 5 percent focused on acceptance of the condition.
“Pinterest may actually be a source of support and a way to add to coping mechanisms,” she said. “When you look at these Pinterest posts, you see people trying to manage pain and trying to help each other and trying to provide support to each other. That is something that could be turned into an effective tool for health care providers and for communicators.”
Reference:
Jeanine P. D. Guidry. et al., Pinning to Cope: Using Pinterest for Chronic Pain Management. Health Education & Behavior (2019).