Table 1.

Demographics and health characteristics of posters and lurkers

	Posters*		Lurkers		χ2 (df)†	Mann-Whitney‡	P§
	No.	%	No.	%
Sex					.000 (1)||		1.00
Female	392	94	102	94
Male	27	6	7	6
Age in years (posters: n = 416, lurkers: n = 109)						18291.50	.002
Mean (SD)	43 (10.4)		47 (9.9)
Minimum	17		19
Maximum	73		75
Marital/relationship status					.094 (1)||		.76
Single	88	21	25	23
In a relationship	331	79	84	77
Education					2.24 (2)		.33
Low	129	32	42	39
Middle	170	42	43	39
High	111	27	24	22
Employment status					1.33 (2)		.51
Paid job (> 20 hours)	128	31	39	36
Paid job (≤ 20 hours)	54	13	11	10
No job	234	56	59	54
Diagnosis					.745 (3)		.86
Breast cancer	166	40	48	44
Fibromyalgia	95	23	22	20
Arthritis	97	23	24	22
More diagnoses	61	15	15	14
Time in years since diagnosis (posters: n = 385, lurkers: n = 96)						14382.50	.001
Mean (SD)	5.4 (6.1)		3.7 (4.6)
Minimum	0		0
Maximum	51		21
Well-being (SF 12) (posters: n = 355, lurkers: n = 52)
Physical well-being, mean (SD)	36.4 (11.6)		37.5 (9.9)			8294.50	.24
Mental well-being, mean (SD)	40.5 (6.4)		37.7 (5.8)			6960.50	.004

^*No. is the number of respondents per item. Percentages are given with the total number of respondents per question as denominator (due to nonresponses, denominators may vary from question to question).

^†Chi-square values are Pearson chi-square values with degrees of freedom in parentheses.

^‡Mann-Whitney U value.

^§ P value for chi-square tests and Mann-Whitney U tests comparing posters and lurkers.

^||Chi-square values are Pearson chi-square values with continuity correction.