The use of weblogs within palliative care: A systematic literature review

The use of weblogs has had a huge impact within the healthcare sector, and palliative care users have found a way to express themselves using this technology. The objective of this article is to review current research on palliative care service users' experience of using weblogs. A search was conducted in MEDLINE, PsycINFO and PubMed from 2002 to 2012 focusing on weblogs in palliative care. After extensive searches and assessment, six articles were included in the review. Results show that palliative care bloggers find blogging therapeutic and beneficial. Weblogs empowered individuals leading to health behaviour change while also giving them access to social support thus fostering well-being. However, there is lack of robust evidence showing the benefits of blogging using clinical measures or other scientific methods. Given the growth of these weblogs by palliative care patients, research is required to strengthen evidence for their benefit and to evaluate their effectiveness.