Individuals who are dealing with thyroid diseases, often turn to online health communities (hereafter OHCs) in order to alleviate their consequences. The common denominator of OHCs is the exchange of social support, through which members of OHC obtain resources to improve health. The purpose of this diploma thesis is to examine, with the help of an integrative literature review in the field of thyroid disease, what are the differences in the exchange of social support in various forms of OHCs and what are the motives and reasons for visiting and using them. The purpose of the task is also to check to what extent the exchange of support is one of the main reasons for visiting the OHCs. With the help of a literature search in bibliographic databases based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, I included five scientific articles that dealt with the researched topics in the final analysis. I found that the differences in the exchange of forms of social support in different forms of OHCs are more difficult to explain, since there is little literature related to this topic. The main motives and reasons for using OHCs are the need to obtain health-related information and emotional support from peers. Above all, the latter is important, because with this, OHCs users acquire sources of empowerment and, as a result, cope more easily with the disease and its consequences. In the assignment, through an integrative literature review and analysis of scientific articles, I found that the exchange of social support is one of the main reasons for visiting OHCs.
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