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Title:
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THE USE OF AN ONLINE HEALTH COMMUNITY ON OVERWEIGHT: A MEMBER PERSPECTIVE |
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Author(s):
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Åsa Smedberg |
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ISBN:
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978-972-8924-82-9 |
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Editors:
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Gunilla Bradley and Piet Kommers |
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Year:
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2009 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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Health communities; conversations; preventive healthcare; bad habits; learning |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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51 |
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Last Page:
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58 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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Today, there are lots of open web based communities for people with different mental and physical health issues. Among
these are health communities for people who suffer from established bad habits, who try to lose weight or quit smoking,
for example. These communities aim at helping people change habits, and thereby reduce the risk of getting severe
illnesses. The community members discuss their concerns about everyday situations, and they post requests about
treatments, exercises, motivation, etc. The question is how these communities manage to trigger learning and behavioral
change among the members. In this paper, results from a study of the community members own experiences are
presented. The results are based on a questionnaire to the members of a web based community on overweight present on
the Swedish Net Doctor site. The results showed how the members found community participation to be beneficial, but
they also pointed out some difficulties related to their learning processes. |
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