| Item type: | Article | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Journal or Publication Title: | Gender Medicine | ||||
| Publisher: | EXCERPTA MEDICA INC-ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC | ||||
| Place of Publication: | BRIDGEWATER | ||||
| Volume: | 5 | ||||
| Number of Issue or Book Chapter: | 2 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 181-185 | ||||
| Date: | 2008 | ||||
| Institutions: | Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie | ||||
| Identification Number: |
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| Keywords: | EPIDEMIOLOGIC FINDINGS; MAJOR DEPRESSION; INTERVENTION; PREVALENCE; WOMEN; WEB; MEN; SEX; gender-specific psychiatry; help-seeking behavior; Internet; depression | ||||
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine | ||||
| Status: | Published | ||||
| Refereed: | Yes, this version has been refereed | ||||
| Created at the University of Regensburg: | Yes | ||||
| Item ID: | 68087 |
Web of ScienceAbstract
Background: The published literature reflects. differences between the sexes in the help-seeking behavior of individuals with depression. Professional mental health services reach men to a lesser extent than women. Internet forums are considered an option to better reach males specifically. Objective: We investigated gender differences in the active use of the Internet to access English- and ...
Abstract
Background: The published literature reflects. differences between the sexes in the help-seeking behavior of individuals with depression. Professional mental health services reach men to a lesser extent than women. Internet forums are considered an option to better reach males specifically. Objective: We investigated gender differences in the active use of the Internet to access English- and German-language information on depression. Methods: Analysis differentiated contributors' sex for 200 threads (clusters of responses related to one person seeking advice) followed on 2 Internet forums, www.defeatdepression.org, originating from the United Kingdom, and www.verrueckt.de, originating from Germany. From the qualifying date of January 3, 2007, the investigated threads retrospectively reached 149 days. Using 2 variables, "sex ratio. of regular Internet users" and "epidemiologically expected sex ratio," we calculated a hypothetical value for the female-to-male (F:M) ratio of requests for help of 1.23 for the United Kingdom and 1.16 for Germany. Then we compared the actual versus the estimated gender distributions with a 2-sided chi(2) test. Results: We included 89 queries from www.defeatdepression.org and 97 queries from www.verrueckt.de. On the English-language forum, 46 (52%) of the queries were from women and 43 (48%) from men. On the German-language forum, 67 (69%) of the queries were from women and 30 (31%) from men. The German forum had a significantly higher F:M ratio of contributors compared with the English forum (2.23 vs 1.07, respectively; chi(2) = 5.885; P = 0.015). The actual F:M ratio of contributors for the English forum was similar to the expected calculation (1.07 actual vs 1.23 expected; chi(2) = 0.230; P = 0.652), but was significantly lower than the actual versus the expected F:M ratio of contributors for the German forum (2.23 actual vs 1.16 expected; chi(2) = 4.891; P = 0.027). Conclusion: Possible reasons for the German Internet forum having a higher F:M ratio of contributors compared with the English Internet forum are the differences in presentation style, language, and cultural context between the 2 Web sites.
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