Social Media Use of Caregivers of Dementia Patients
Abstract
Objective: This study was carried out to reveal the most common problems of caregivers of Alzheimer's disease and related Dementia patients by analyzing the posts in Facebook groups between January and February 2022.
Methods: In the Facebook groups, the posts of the participants were scanned with the keywords "Alzheimer", "Dementia", "care of the patient with Alzheimer "care of the patient with Dementia". Facebook has 24.912 users and 50.107 posts in nine group accounts. After the posts in the Facebook groups were determined, the modified thematic analysis of the posts was made using open and axial coding methods.
Results: According to the thematic analysis, 45.4% of the posts were written to ask for information, 32.0% to to express helplessness, 22.6 % to seek and provide support. As a result, the posts were an opportunity to share experiences, to receive/give support and help from others with similar experiences.
Conclusions: According to this study, Facebook groups are most commonly used by caregivers of patients with dementia for information seeking, dejection, support seeking, and support giving. It has been established that people use the posts as a way to exchange experiences, get and offer support, and ask for assistance from others who have gone through similar things.
Keywords: Nursing, patient care, patient with alzheimer/dementia
Keywords
References
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