Health Blogging: An Examination of the Outcomes Associated With Making Public, Written Disclosures About Health

The reported study explored the implications of making public, written disclosures about illness-related experiences in the context of health blogging. The outcomes associated with specific forms of expression used by bloggers and their readers were investigated. A panel study was conducted among 72 individuals who live with and blog about their experiences with a specific health condition. The results, although modest, show that elements of health blogging are associated with improvements in bloggers’ well-being. Bloggers’ use of insight words was associated with decreased health-related uncertainty and, among bloggers who posted relatively more frequently, increased purpose in life. Additionally, for those bloggers whose readers commented more frequently, readers’ use of negative emotion words was associated with increased perceptions of personal growth among bloggers.