Living with a chronic condition is an immense feat on its own, but often, a patient’s journey can morph into something all the more complicated when dealing with additional emotional and mental health conditions: a winding, non-linear path through twists and turns, pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis, daily symptom management, and more.

Health Union’s 40+ online health communities serve patients through these critical points and more each day, fostering lifetime connections and serving as powerhouses for patients and caregivers. A 2021 Health Union survey of 2,371 patients found that 95% of patients use online social resources for health reasons and ¾ use social resources at critical points in their journey. Concentrating on why, when, and how patients are seeking out social health—the dynamic, real-time action people take to find meaningful connections and share information that impact the health journey— helps to deeply understand patients and their paths to comprehend symptoms, diagnoses, complex test results, and more.

Highlighting the Intersection Between Mental Health and Chronic Conditions

Out of the 2,371 social health survey respondents, 708 selected “mental health” for at least one of their conditions when asked what types of condition(s) and/or cancer(s) they had. A deeper look at the data sheds light on additional characteristics of those living with a mental health condition:

• Almost half (45%) indicated that they live with an autoimmune condition,
• 42% indicated they live with gastrointestinal disorders,
• 38% indicated that they live with cardiovascular disease, and
• 48% chose “diagnostic tests/medical testing” when asked what health-related topics have been of interest in online resources.

In addition, 79% of patients living with mental health condition(s) used social health when trying to better understand diagnostic test results, further advancing the notion that mental health conditions tend to intersect with diagnoses and management of other non-related conditions. Patients aren’t just engaging in social health to understand tests and results, but also to cope with them. For example, diagnostic test results for patients living with different types of cancer can cause uneasiness and fear to arise (often dubbed scanxiety), and this may lead patients to reach for social health in times of need, loneliness, or confusion. A common denominator between patients with different chronic illnesses is made explicitly clear: using social health to discuss mental health resources, intricacies, and support. 

Patients use Social Health to Share Stories and Map Out Comorbidities

Within each of Health Union’s communities, a dedicated Mental Health Hub lives among real-life accounts and forums, interacted with by thousands of patients navigating a myriad of symptoms. These intimate perspectives about a patient’s quality of life help provide healthcare marketers a better understanding of how patients conceptualize mental health:

• During a past Mental Health Awareness Month, Sarah Hackley,
  a Migraine.com moderator, wrote that “…the more we know about our personal relationship with any disease or disorder, the better prepared we are to manage it” when discussing her relationship between anxiety and migraine.
• Describing his experiences with debilitating loneliness, MultipleSclerosis.net moderator Devin Garlit explained how depression is “a massive problem for those with the disease.”
• Urging readers to “ask [themselves] the right questions about mental health,” Leanne Donaldson, a Psoriatic-Arthritis.com moderator, recalled detailed significant shifts in her mental health due to PsA.