COVID-19 infodemic and adult and elderly mental health: a scoping review

Abstract

Objective: to map scientific knowledge about the repercussions of the infodemic on adult and elderly mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: this is a scoping review, developed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology, which included 33 articles. These articles were analyzed according to average age, gender and education level; place and period of the studies; exposure time to COVID-19 information; main signs and symptoms related to mental health; main sources of information; suggestions for mitigating the effects of the infodemic; and knowledge gaps. Results: the most present repercussions of the infodemic on the adult and elderly mental health were anxiety, depression and stress, and the most affected group was young adults and females. Conclusion: future studies with more robust designs are needed to investigate the repercussions of the infodemic on people’s mental health in the medium and long term, as well as to assess the effects, feasibility, cost-benefit and meaning of interventions in population groups, especially in the elderly population.

Infodemic Challenges During COVID-19 Pandemic and the Strategies to Deal with Them: A Review Article

“…Active conflict of scientific journals with misinformation (16) Accurate and timely translation of the knowledge (17) Suggest further studies to investigate the infodemiological dimensions of disease (18) Disseminate messages and perform science and evidence-based interventions (19) Transforming knowledge into practical messages for behavior change (19) Timely translation of evidence into knowledge that can be used according to local cultures, languages, and contexts (19) Development of scientific approaches to infodemic exposure based on the acquired experiences (19) The effective intervention of health care professionals…”

“…According to the results of other studies, social risks were another challenge posed by infodemic in the COVID-19 pandemic. Exposure of people to a large amount of contradictory information about COVID-19 and easy access to the sources, especially at the initial stages of the pandemic, led to the generation of anxiety among people (18,21). This resulted in the generation of global waves of pre-epidemic panic due to misinformation (8), an increase in the rates of anxiety and sleep disturbance at the initial stages of the pandemic (42), the development of various myths about COVID-19 (25), distrust of governments and experts (37) and the public's distrust in the media (43,44).…”

Current status and influencing factors of digital health literacy among community-dwelling older adults in Southwest China: a cross-sectional study

“…Besides, older adults with a low level of digital health literacy when exposed to myths and rumours about COVID-19 abound, likely to become a marginalized but more vulnerable group [ 22 ]. Uncertainties regarding the quality of Internet health information not only created negative emotions like anxiety and panic [ 23 ], but also had a harmful influence on their health-related decisions [ 24 ]. Due to the above reasons, digital health literacy of older adults has gradually attracted the attention of scholars and then series of studies have been carried out in recent years.…”

COVID-19 en Brasil: ¿Hay diferencias entre la alfabetización en salud mental de los hombres jóvenes y la de los mayores?

“…Las infodemias también generan grandes repercusiones en la salud mental de la población, especialmente en la de los adultos mayores (15) . Por lo tanto, en un momento como este, lleno de incertidumbre y con exceso de todo tipo de información, incluso de fake news, es necesario que la población mundial adopte un cambio rápido de comportamiento para reducir los impactos que genera el COVID-19 en la salud mental (16) .…”