Table 4.
Perceived support, online interactions, and likeliness to accept emotional support (N = 598 unless otherwise noted)
| Total | Clinical ED (n= 142) |
Subclinical ED (n= 358) |
No ED (n=98) |
p-value | Pairwise comparisons | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n (%) or Mean [SD] | ||||||
| Online social support score (range 1 to 5) (n=542) | 3.53 [1.06] | 3.74 [1.03] | 3.49 [1.17] | 3.38 [0.98] | 0.023 | Clinical ED > Subclinical ED, No ED |
| Preference for online social interaction score (range 1 to 5) (n=556) | 3.30 [1.03] | 3.43 [1.05] | 3.28 [1.03] | 3.15 [1.03] | 0.113 | -- |
| Accepting emotional support from individuals on social media (People may choose more than one) | ||||||
| Someone you know | 341 (57.02) | 67 (47.18) | 208 (58.10) | 66 (67.35) | 0.007 | No ED, Subclinical ED > Clinical ED |
| Someone you didn’t know | 228 (38.13) | 67 (47.18) | 135 (37.71) | 26 (26.53) | 0.005 | Clinical ED, Subclinical ED > No ED |
| Your health professional | 250 (41.81) | 46 (32.39) | 151 (42.18) | 53 (54.08) | 0.009 | No ED > Subclinical ED > Clinical ED |
| A health professional you didn’t know | 159 (26.59) | 36 (25.35) | 91 (25.42) | 32 (32.65) | 0.331 | -- |
| Response type (Among those who posted on social media, n=413) | 0.002 | |||||
| People are mostly positive. | 154 (25.75) | 50 (35.21) | 84 (23.46) | 20 (20.41) | Clinical ED > Subclinical ED | |
| People are sometimes positive. | 136 (22.74) | 34 (23.94) | 86 (24.02) | 16 (16.33) | -- | |
| People are sometimes positive and sometimes negative | 98 (16.39) | 20 (14.08) | 64 (17.88) | 14 (14.29) | -- | |
| People are sometimes negative. | 16 (2.68) | 6 (4.34) | 9 (2.51) | 1 (1.02) | -- | |
| People are mostly negative. | 9 (1.51) | 2 (1.41) | 7 (1.96) | 0 | -- | |
Note: Pairwise comparisons listed were significant at least at p <0.05.