COVID-19 Patient Education and Consumer Health Information Resources and Services

The causes, impacts and countermeasures of COVID-19 “Infodemic”: A systematic review using narrative synthesis

“…Another major cause of the infodemic is the low level of health/eHealth literacy, which referred to the ability to obtain, process, and understand health information and finally make health decisions ( Berkman et al., 2010 ; Kindig et al., 2004 ; Baur, 2020 ). Numerous editorials and commentaries were also found to point out its negative role during the infodemic ( Mokhtari and Mirzaei, 2020 ; Tagliabue et al., 2020 ; Nguyen and Catalan, 2020 ; Ogunkola et al., 2020 ; Hanspal and Hanspal, 2020 ; Lucero-Prisno et al., 2020 ; Sentell et al., 2020 ; Kletter, 2020 ; Cangussú et al., 2020 ; Jindal and Anand, 2020 ; Paakkari and Okan, 2020 ; Vanderpool et al., 2020 ; Okereke et al., 2020 ; Greenspan and Loftus, 2021 ; Schiavo, 2020 ; Morgan-Daniel et al., 2020 ; Scherer and Pennycook, 2020 ; Eysenbach, 2020 ; Alvarez-Risco et al., 2020 ; Ghazal Aghagoli et al., 2020 ; Anon, 2020 ; Chong et al., 2020 ), which was supported by the evidence from a considerable number of empirical studies. For example, a low level of health/eHealth literacy was found positively related to the conspiracy beliefs in different countries ( Duplaga, 2020 ; Pickles et al., 2020 ; Okan et al., 2020 ; Sallam et al., 2020 ; Sallam et al., 2020 ), which further contributed to the rumor spreading, as mentioned earlier.…”

“…A few other causes were identified from this review: ideology ( Chou et al., 2021 ; Okereke et al., 2020 ; Scherer and Pennycook, 2020 ; Ghazal Aghagoli et al., 2020 ; Cichocka, 2020 ; Hauer and Sood, 2020 ), health information needs and overloads ( Greenspan and Loftus, 2021 ; Morgan-Daniel et al., 2020 ; Garcia and Duarte, 2020 ; Larson, 2020 ), civil literacy ( Schiavo, 2020 ), the armchair scientist phenomenon ( Chong et al., 2020 ), inappropriate usage of map information ( Mooney and Juhász, 2020 ), the distrust of government ( Mondiale de la Santé, 2020 ; Chou et al., 2021 ; Horton, 2020 ), financial incentives and lack of supervision ( Bastani and Bahrami, 2020 ), and large scale lockdown ( Kulkarni et al., 2020 ; Sasidharan et al., 2020 ; Cichocka, 2020 ). Only ideology was quantitatively investigated: people with certain ideological characteristics (e.g., general skepticism, cultural/political orientation, and conservatism) were found more susceptible to rumors ( Calvillo et al., 2020 ; Alper et al., 2020 ; Georgiou et al., 2020 ; Biddlestone et al., 2020 ; Havey, 2020 ).…”

“…Education and training on health/eHealth literacy were required for the public communities or individuals to increase their ability to differentiate reliable information from the rumors. ( Durodolu and Ibenne, 2020 ; Wormer, 2020 ; Mokhtari and Mirzaei, 2020 ; Mondiale de la Santé, 2020 ; Gottlieb and Dyer, 2020 ; Chou et al., 2021 ; Bastani and Bahrami, 2020 ; Vanderpool et al., 2020 ; Okereke et al., 2020 ; Schiavo, 2020 ; Morgan-Daniel et al., 2020 ; Alvarez-Risco et al., 2020 ; Chong et al., 2020 ; Cichocka, 2020 ; Scerri and Grech, 2020 ; Patel et al., 2020 ; Yu and Mani, 2020 ; Ahmed, 2020 ; Hui et al., 2020 ; Clark-Ginsberg et al., 2020 ; Vraga et al., 2020 ; Sharma et al., 2020 ; Xie et al., 2020 ; Dakhesh et al., 2020 ; Eysenbach, 2002 ; Graham, 2021 ; Morley et al., 2020 ; Vervoort et al., 2020 ; Sperry and Scheibe, 2002 ; Khan et al., 2020 ; Ratzan et al., 2020 ; Hartley and Vu, 2020 ) Empirical studies showed that an empowering intervention was able to significantly reduce the conspiracy beliefs among the public, hence reducing the spreading of rumors ( van Stekelenburg et al., 2021 ; Richardson et al., 2020 ).…”

“… Recommendations for public health information needs/seeking 1 The infodemic is the product of a differentiated risk profile, suggesting that to address the infodemic is to tailor interventions to fit the various needs of different populations ( Clark-Ginsberg et al., 2020 ; Chisita, 2020 ); 2 To develop behavioral strategies to satisfy the needs of ethnic groups suffering the stigma and discrimination of disease ( Patel et al., 2020 ); 3 Governments should reach out to communities to ensure their information needs are understood, customizing messages to satisfy the audiences; craft texts for lay audiences ( Bastani and Bahrami, 2020 ; Hauer and Sood, 2020 ; Xie et al., 2020 ; Tangcharoensathien et al., 2020 ; Hua and Shaw, 2020 ); 4 Through EPI-WIN, WHO identifies the key "amplifiers," who are trusted sources of information for specific audiences, and by regular contact and discussion about their information needs, create appropriate informational and educational materials ( JCIH Editorial Team 2020 ); 5 Stop considering the current information that you are consuming. It is beneficial to consider everything as potentially being fake news unless you can verify them; Use common-sense questions to ask yourself when evaluating medical information[223] ; 6 Find the right media documents, and ask the right questions ( Sperry and Scheibe, 2002 ); 7 The information from various sources should go through one dedicated center for them to decipher, diagnose, treat and inform affected individuals ( Khan, 2020 ); 8 Examine how people search and navigate the Internet for health information from the perspective of Infodemiology ( Hernández-García and Giménez-Júlvez, 2020 ; Zhao et al., 2020 ; Sousa-Pinto et al., 2020 ; Rovetta and Bhagavathula, 2020 ; Eysenbach, 2009 ; Rovetta and Bhagavathula, 2020 ; Kopilaš and Gajović, 2020 ); 9 Vet emerging sources for health providers and users in emergency ( Morgan-Daniel et al., 2020 ); 10 …”

Socioeconomic Disparities in eHealth Literacy and Preventive Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Hong Kong: Cross-sectional Study

“…Appropriate processing and utilization of health information is complex during the COVID-19 pandemic, given the novel outbreak patterns and evolving information regarding the disease [ 10 ]. It is important to identify the characteristics of individuals at the risk of lower eHealth literacy for effective health promotion, including the provision of limited literacy resources [ 11 ]. Previous studies have suggested that eHealth literacy is affected by sociodemographic, environmental, and contextual factors [ 12 ].…”