A Review: The correlation between Different Dimensions of Loneliness and the Use of Social Media in Cancer Patients Download PDF

Objective: Individuals who have experienced loneliness get involved in many problems such as failing to establish and maintain close relationships, engaging in social activities, participating in groups and controlling their state of affairs. Cancer patients feel lonelier than the others; this can affect their treatment process, so evaluation and treatment of this disorder is important. Lonely people are more likely to be drawn online as a way to modulate negative moods associated with loneliness. Methods: To determine the association between loneliness and tendency to use social media in cancer patients, we evaluate 316 cancer patients. The instrument used to measure loneliness was the social and emotional loneliness scale for adults (SELSA-S). Data were analyzed using correlation test running SPSS soft-ware. Result: the results revealed a significant positive correlation between the use of social media and total loneliness (r=0.73, p <0.001); use of social media and familial loneliness (r=0.65, p<0.001); use of social media and romantic loneliness (r=0.14, p > 0.05); and use of social media and social loneliness (r=0.48, p<0.001) Conclusion The results showed that patients who are socially lonely and suffer familial loneliness were more likely to use the social media for support than others.