Reddit’s popularity as a tool for self-managing inflammatory bowel disease highlights opportunities for improvements in clinical care, according to a paper published in Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Inflammatory bowel disease is a category of conditions that includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and affects over three million people in the United States.
Sufferers deal with this chronic condition in their day-to-day lives — not just when they’re in a doctor’s office.
That’s why gastroenterologists take an interest in self management, or their patients’ abilities to manage their own symptoms.
One window into self management habits is social media, where people with IBD might discuss their challenges with fellow sufferers, or seek tips for symptom management.
To better understand the role of social media in self management of IBD, researchers studied 659 posts on Reddit, from three IBD-specific “subreddit” sites: “r/IBD,” “r/UlcerativeColitis” and “r/CrohnsDisease.”
