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Article History

Received: 27 August 2024

Accepted: 16 October 2024

First Online: 28 October 2024

Declarations

:

: This study obtained ethical approval from Queen Mary Ethics of Research Committee (QMERC22.185) and was deemed low-risk. It was not possible to obtain informed consent due to this being a retrospective online forum analysis with users who do not provide contact information. As this forum is accessible without website membership, this is usual practice and falls in line with other studies that have used online forum data to investigate patient experiences. As outlined in the ethical approval, we made sure to treat users with respect and dignity by maintaining their privacy through robust procedures. Alongside protecting usernames, we did not directly quote from the forum or including traceable raw data that could be put in search engines in research papers and document. We did not use verbatim quotes, but use descriptions of quotes throughout the text to protect privacy. Additionally, an external researcher checked that popular search engine results of quotes did not lead to the online forum under study.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.