Computer and Information Science, ISSN 1913-8989, Vol. 1, No. 1, February 2008

This paper focuses on social dynamics among disclosure communities in terms of balancing disclosure and privacy. Why does a man tell his mother but not his father when facing a medical crisis? This is an example of the core question in this study. To better understand these situations, we need to identify the disclosure activities that take place within the patient and their disclosure community when dealing with illness, and explore the different ways patients balance the need to disclose and the need to be private. The outcome of this study is the development of a conceptual framework (in the form of conceptual map) that describes the social dynamic of health disclosure for chronically ill patients. Concepts like balancing act, which is being closed (private) and at the same time being open (disclosure), timing of disclosure, and role of disclosure emerged as three patterns that emerge during the disclosure process.