Table 5.

Coding of open-ended responses and sample respondent statements in Study 1.

Open-ended question code category	Sample statements	Number of responses
1. Sadness/sympathy/empathy	I feel saddened by the writer’s situation and an urge to help by any means necessary.	17
2. Feel guilty (eg, to be alive and well when others are not)	I feel guilty that I do not appreciate my life enough.	1
3. Feel worried/concerned for oneself	I feel nervous when I think about this sort of thing happening.	0
4. Informative	I think that it is informative about the feelings of people with cancer, which is something that you do not hear about often.	11
5. Well-written	I think that Natalie is an excellent writer who is expressing her true feelings about having cancer.	9
6. Motivates behavior (eg, will make an appointment, do a skin check)	After reading this, I really felt like I want to go and do my annuals, which is pending.	2
7. Makes you appreciate life more	That life is a gift. And we need to leave it with meaning and love what we do. Be thankful.	13
8. Thought of someone with cancer	I’m thinking of all of the people that I know who have had cancer. I have lost so many family members to cancer.	9
9. Did not want to read/would not read	I immediately wanted to close the page when I saw the topic. I feel sick to my stomach. This is not a topic I would ever want to read about.	4
10. No new information/heard it all before	There are many blogs like that, and I have heard many similar ones.	2