Prevalence of Health Misinformation on Social Media: Systematic Review

Although at present there is broad agreement among researchers, health professionals, and policy makers on the need to control and combat health misinformation, the magnitude of this problem is still unknown. Consequently, it is fundamental to discover both the most prevalent health topics and the s...

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Vydáno v:Journal of medical Internet research Ročník 23; číslo 1; s. e17187
Hlavní autoři: Suarez-Lledo, Victor, Alvarez-Galvez, Javier
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: Canada Gunther Eysenbach MD MPH, Associate Professor 20.01.2021
JMIR Publications
Témata:
Cancer
Communication
Development policy
Disease
Disorders
Drugs
Eating disorders
False information
Health services
Human papillomavirus
Humans
Immunization
Marijuana
Mass media
Measurement
Medical personnel
Medical treatment
Methodological approaches
Misinformation
Noncommunicable diseases
Opioids
Pandemics
Policy making
Prevalence
Public health
Public Health - standards
Review
Scientific knowledge
Sentiment analysis
Smoking
Social media
Social Media - standards
Social network analysis
Social networks
Systematic review
Text analysis
Topics
Treatment methods
Vaccines
Viruses
infodemics
infodemiology
social networks
social contagion
health misinformation
social media
poor quality information
ISSN:1438-8871, 1439-4456, 1438-8871
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Shrnutí:Although at present there is broad agreement among researchers, health professionals, and policy makers on the need to control and combat health misinformation, the magnitude of this problem is still unknown. Consequently, it is fundamental to discover both the most prevalent health topics and the social media platforms from which these topics are initially framed and subsequently disseminated. This systematic review aimed to identify the main health misinformation topics and their prevalence on different social media platforms, focusing on methodological quality and the diverse solutions that are being implemented to address this public health concern. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science for articles published in English before March 2019, with a focus on the study of health misinformation in social media. We defined health misinformation as a health-related claim that is based on anecdotal evidence, false, or misleading owing to the lack of existing scientific knowledge. We included (1) articles that focused on health misinformation in social media, including those in which the authors discussed the consequences or purposes of health misinformation and (2) studies that described empirical findings regarding the measurement of health misinformation on these platforms. A total of 69 studies were identified as eligible, and they covered a wide range of health topics and social media platforms. The topics were articulated around the following six principal categories: vaccines (32%), drugs or smoking (22%), noncommunicable diseases (19%), pandemics (10%), eating disorders (9%), and medical treatments (7%). Studies were mainly based on the following five methodological approaches: social network analysis (28%), evaluating content (26%), evaluating quality (24%), content/text analysis (16%), and sentiment analysis (6%). Health misinformation was most prevalent in studies related to smoking products and drugs such as opioids and marijuana. Posts with misinformation reached 87% in some studies. Health misinformation about vaccines was also very common (43%), with the human papilloma virus vaccine being the most affected. Health misinformation related to diets or pro-eating disorder arguments were moderate in comparison to the aforementioned topics (36%). Studies focused on diseases (ie, noncommunicable diseases and pandemics) also reported moderate misinformation rates (40%), especially in the case of cancer. Finally, the lowest levels of health misinformation were related to medical treatments (30%). The prevalence of health misinformation was the highest on Twitter and on issues related to smoking products and drugs. However, misinformation on major public health issues, such as vaccines and diseases, was also high. Our study offers a comprehensive characterization of the dominant health misinformation topics and a comprehensive description of their prevalence on different social media platforms, which can guide future studies and help in the development of evidence-based digital policy action plans.
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ISSN:1438-8871
1439-4456
1438-8871
DOI:10.2196/17187