A content analysis of facebook pages for children with disability

The rapid development of the Internet changes how everyday consumers seek health information. Health information seeking practice o the Internet is becoming inevitable, and health communication through social networking communities is becoming more and more popular. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking services because of its capability to connect social networks, realize interaction, and create extended value of collaboration and information sharing for the society. This study observed 49 Facebook fan pages for children with disability up to December 31, 2011. With consumer health informatics as the grounding perspective and content analysis as data collection and reasoning methods, this study attempted to investigate the development of the Facebook community, the focus of the platform exchange, and patterns of interaction. The study shows that "awareness raising" is the most common types of information posted on the Fan Pages by the community members. Even though community members didn't actively participate in "help seeking," the interaction on Facebook still realize its role and importance in health information communication. Other roles include health care improvement, health promotion, medical decision making, insurance provision, and medication safety. In addition, members interact most often through "like", "comment", and "share". Comments are frequently found with evaluative judgment. The study also provides constructive suggestions for different types of stakeholders, to better design and provide health information services.