-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Online Support Group Study - Request for help
From: "Bartlett Yvonne" <lwxykb@...>
Date: Fri, July 17, 2009 4:37 am
To: <SINLosAngeles-owner@yahoogroups.com>

Dear Sir,

I am contacting you in your capacity as the owner of the Strength in Numbers Los Angeles group. I am currently undertaking research as part of an MSc degree within the Institute of Work, Health & Organisations (I-WHO), which is a postgraduate institute of applied psychology at the University of Nottingham, UK.

The overall purpose of the project is to investigate how the use of online support groups affects users’ feelings about themselves and their illness, and how this impacts on the doctor/patient relationship. More specifically it is concerned with if and how users become empowered, whether users feel comfortable using online information in consultations with healthcare professionals and whether using a support group has had any effect on the doctor - patient relationship.

I have designed a questionnaire to investigate this based on previous research findings in this area. I am contacting you to ask if you would be willing to post a link to the questionnaire on he forum for users to complete?

The link is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=IRVMEmNUS4rAoUN_2b6QxcXg_3d_3d

It is mainly tick boxes with a few longer answer questions and it should take around 15 minutes to complete.

Participation in any stage of this research is completely voluntary for both moderators and users. All sites that post the link will be acknowledged in any publications and reports written. This study has received ethical approval from the I-WHO Ethics Committee.

If you have any questions regarding this research please either reply to this email or my address is lwxykb@....

Many thanks,

Kiera Bartlett

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