Content analysis on user-focused support features of health support sites for geriatric depression

With the unique characteristics of anonymity and non-physical interaction, the Internet has provided numerous depression support sites that can enable older people with stigmatized illness to seek for health information and acquire social support effectively. However, few studies have been conducted to evaluate the sites on user-focused support features for geriatric depression. Hence, in this paper, we report a study using content analysis with a hybrid coding approach to systematically analyze and assess the usefulness and usability of 60 depression-related sites worldwide, with 27 Asia-based and 33 Western-based. The intention of the study was to determine the benefits of these sites for geriatric depression. We formulated a research tool, a checklist of user-focused support features, critical to the effectiveness of depression sites in four aspects - purposes, information quality, interactivity and accessibility. Findings have reflected an overall high coverage of depression information in the sites in general description (93.3%), causes (76.7%), symptoms (90.0%) and treatment (88.3%), although most of them were not elderly-focused. New forms of 'patient-to-helper' and 'patient-to-patient' interaction types were observed in the sites with high social media involvement, yet more assistant features need to be introduced in order to address elderly users' physical and cognitive problems. Western sites were more likely to be depression-focused, while Asian sites have higher percentage of features for assisting elderly. We believe the findings will benefit web developers and healthcare researchers in building depression sites with higher quality and user experience for elderly users.