The use and value of digital media for information about pregnancy and early motherhood: a focus group study.

BACKGROUND: Many women in countries in the global North access digital media information sources during pregnancy and the early years of motherhood. These include websites, blogs, online discussion forums, apps and social media platforms. Little previous research has sought to investigate in detail how women use the diverse range of digital media now available to them and what types of information they value. A qualitative study using focus groups was conducted to address these issues. METHODS: Four focus groups were held in Sydney, Australia, including a total of 36 women who were either pregnant or had given birth in the previous three years. The participants were asked to talk about the types of digital media they used for pregnancy and parenting purposes, why they used them and in what ways they found them useful or helpful (or not). Group discussions were transcribed and thematically analysed, identifying the dominant information characteristics identified by women as valuable and useful. RESULTS: Nine characteristics emerged from the focus group discussions as most important to women: information that was: 1) immediate; 2) regular; 3) detailed; 4) entertaining; 5) customised; 6) practical; 7) professional; 8) reassuring; and 9) unbiased. These characteristics were valued for different purposes and needs. Digital media provided women with details when they most needed them or at times when they had opportunities to access them. The study showed that women value apps or digital platforms that are multi-functional. The findings revealed the importance of using digital information for establishing and maintaining social connections and intimate relationships with other mothers. However, participants also highly valued expert advice and expressed the desire for greater and more ready access to information and support offered by healthcare professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women and those with young children place a high value on the information and support they receive from and sharing using online sources and apps. They are accustomed to ready and immediate access to information using digital technologies and want better access to that offered by professionals. Recognising and finding ways to meet these needs should be included in planning healthcare provision and support for this group. Further research with women from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and non-urban locations is required to identify whether they have different information needs and values from the women who were included in the study reported here.

Health promotion in the digital era: a critical commentary.

A range of digitized health promotion practices have emerged in the digital era. Some of these practices are voluntarily undertaken by people who are interested in improving their health and fitness, but many others are employed in the interests of organizations and agencies. This article provides a critical commentary on digitized health promotion. I begin with an overview of the types of digital technologies that are used for health promotion, and follow this with a discussion of the socio-political implications of such use. It is contended that many digitized health promotion strategies focus on individual responsibility for health and fail to recognize the social, cultural and political dimensions of digital technology use. The increasing blurring between voluntary health promotion practices, professional health promotion, government and corporate strategies requires acknowledgement, as does the increasing power wielded by digital media corporations over digital technologies and the data they generate. These issues provoke questions for health promotion as a practice and field of research that hitherto have been little addressed.

The commodification of patient opinion: the digital patient experience economy in the age of big data.

As part of the digital health phenomenon, a plethora of interactive digital media platforms have been established in recent years to elicit lay people's experiences of illness and health care. The overt function of these platforms is to provide forums where patients and caregivers can share their experiences with others, benefit from the support and knowledge of other users and contribute to large aggregated data archives as part of developing better medical treatments and services and conducting medical research. However, what may not always be readily apparent to the users of these platforms are the growing commercial uses by many of the platforms' owners of the data they contribute. This article examines this phenomenon of what I term 'the digital patient experience economy'. Such aspects of this economy as prosumption (the combination of content consumption and production that is characteristic of the use of Web 2.0 technologies), the valorising of big data, the discourse and ethic of sharing and the commercialisation of affective labour are discussed. It is argued that via these online platforms patients' opinions and experiences may be expressed in more diverse and accessible forums than ever before, but simultaneously they have become exploited in novel ways.