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...people access medical advice online, very little research has examined this phenomenon as it relates to chat-rooms. This study focuses on a single medical issue: prescription drug abuse. Data, gathered over a one-week time span, simulated the type of information that an individual might access, if concerned about drug abuse. The study analyzed postings from seven chat-rooms; each "thread" contained over twenty messages. Utilizing the assistance of a physician, the study coded individual postings as medically beneficial, neutral, or harmful. In all, over two hundred individual postings were coded. Fifty-five percent of postings had neutral content that would not assist an individual concerned about drug abuse, such as directions for creating chat "threads." Thirty-seven percent of postings offered medically beneficial advice, which included information on the dangers of specific substances or advice to seek medical help. The physician coded advice "harmful" in eight percent of postings. Several postings in one chat-room included abuse-positive opinions. This work has implications for scholarship in media, as well as health promotion.
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