Table 1.
Group demographics and characteristics. Demographics of the analyzed preclinical year 1 (PCY1) and preclinical year 2 (PCY2) group. Active users were defined as users with at least one post per semester. For user typology, user activity was divided into arbitrary groups, each contributing about one-third of posts. We defined social media drivers as members with >30 posts per semester, frequent posters with 11 to 30 posts, and lurkers with 1 to 10 posts per semester.
| Group characteristics | Preclinical year 1 | Preclinical year 2 | |
| Active users, n (%) | 863 (71.15) | 728 (63.40) | |
| User type distribution among active users, n (%) | |||
| Social media drivers | 28 (3.2) | 34 (4.7) | |
| Frequent posters | 130 (15.1) | 131 (18.0) | |
| Lurkers | 705 (81.7) | 563 (77.3) | |
| Post contribution (of total posts), n (%) | |||
| Social media drivers | 1286 (21.70) | 1718 (28.99) | |
| Frequent posters | 2270 (38.31) | 2300 (38.81) | |
| Lurkers | 2370 (39.99) | 1909 (32.21) | |
| Total posts | |||
| Primary posts, n (%) | 1168 (19.71) | 1246 (21.02) | |
| Average comment or primary post | 4.1 | 3.8 | |