Vitiligo is a chronic dermatologic condition that negatively affects quality of life (QOL), with substantial burden on the psychosocial well-being of patients.1 There is no cure, and current treatment modalities are aimed at controlling the chronic relapsing condition.1-3 Despite topical and cosmetic treatments for stabilization and repigmentation, vitiligo remains unpredictable.3
All genders, races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic classes are equally affected.4 The underlying etiology of vitiligo remains unknown to a great extent and is more poorly understood by the general public compared with other skin diseases (eg, acne).5 Patients with vitiligo experience social withdrawal, decreased sense of self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.5,6 Stigmatization has the greatest impact on QOL, with strong correlations between avoidance behaviors and lesion concealment.6-8 Although the condition is especially disfiguring for darker skin types, lighter skin types also are substantially affected, with similar overall self-reported stress.6,7
Individuals with chronic illnesses such as vitiligo turn to online communities for health information and social support, commiserating with others who have the same condition.9,10 Online forums are platforms for asynchronous peer-to-peer exchange of disease-related information for better management of long-term disease.11 Moreover, of all available internet resources, online forum posts are the most commonly accessed source of information (91%) for patients following visits with their doctors.12
Qualitative research involving chronic skin conditions and the information exchanged in online forums has been conducted for patients with acne, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis, but not for patients with vitiligo.13-16 Although online questionnaires have been administered to patients with vitiligo, the content within online forums is not well characterized.2,17
The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate the online content exchanged by individuals with vitiligo to better understand the general attitudes and help-seeking behaviors in online forums.
Methods
Study Design—This qualitative study sought to investigate health beliefs and messages about vitiligo posted by users in US-based online discussion forums. An interpretive research paradigm was utilized so that all content collected in online forums were the views expressed by individuals.18-20 An integrated approach was used in the development of the coding manual, with pre-established major themes and subthemes as a guiding framework.16,21,22 We adhered to an inductive grounded method by means of de novo line-by-line coding, such that we had flexibility for new subthemes to emerge throughout the duration of the entire coding process.23
Individual posts and subsequent replies embedded within public online forums were used as the collected data source. Google was utilized as the primary search engine to identify forums pertaining to vitiligo, as 80% of US adults with chronic disease report that their inquiries for health information start with Google, Bing, or Yahoo.24 The institutional review board at the Wake Forest School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) granted approval of the study (IRB00063073). Online forums were considered “property” of the public domain and were accessible to all, eliminating the need for written informed consent.24-26