Health-related misinformation on social media

The issue of health-related misinformation is becoming increasingly important.  What is this and how do we address it to prevent negative impacts on health?

There has been a progressive increase in the amount and frequency of health-related information posted on various social media platforms.  There has also been an increasing perception that misleading health-related information may spread more quickly across social media than factual information.  These perceptions have led to progressive concerns about inaccurate information being disseminated and incorporated by users on social media.  This type of information is so-called misinformation or disinformation.

The issue of misinformation is important because any health-related information which is inaccurate or misleading could lead to negative consequences for the user’s health and wellbeing.  There is, therefore, a responsibility on the part of healthcare professionals to play a role in providing accurate and current evidence and recommendations, while also attempting to address misinformation.  There are related issues which are important to discuss.  Firstly, given the nature of medical research and information, evidence is continuously emerging and evolving.  What may be considered accurate at one point in time may subsequently be determined to be incorrect and vice versa.  Given this circumstance, it is challenging in many situations to determine what is considered misinformation.  Recent medical history is replete with examples of what were believed to be factual recommendations that, with subsequent research, were found to be false.  The reverse is also true with additional investigations determining that previously believed false findings were, in fact, correct.  This makes managing the valid concerns or claims that are misinformation challenging.  Also making this process difficult, is the need to respect freedom of speech and individual rights in the process of addressing what may be considered to be misleading or inaccurate health-related information.

Before it is possible to determine definitive solutions to the issue of dissemination of health-related misinformation on social media, it is first necessary to better understand the scope of the problem.  Suarez-Lledo and Alvarez-Galves recently reported a systematic review with the express purpose of accomplishing this goal.  In order to conduct their study, they defined misinformation as information that is based upon either false, anecdotal, or misleading information with a lack of established scientific knowledge base.  They analyzed 69 studies and noted that a wide variety of health-related topics were covered, most commonly vaccination in 32%, smoking and drug use in 22%, noninfectious diseases in 19%, pandemics in 10%, and eating disorders in 9%.  The most commonly utilized platform was Twitter in 43%, followed by YouTube in 37%.

They encountered that the type or format of misinformation varied between the commonly discussed topics.  For example, in dissemination of vaccine related misinformation, there was an attempt to discuss issues  “…with a scientific appearance…”.  On the basis of their findings, they recommended that in an attempt to address this issue, healthcare professionals utilize social media platforms to promote health and “…colonize the social media ecosystem with the ultimate goal of combating the waves of health misinformation…”.

While further research regarding this issue is needed, these findings provide an initial understanding of the scope of the issue and potential implications.  As social media is a quickly evolving milieu, the nature of health-related misinformation on social media is also likely to change rapidly.  This likely applies to the most commonly used platforms and the topics discussed.  The better we are able to understand the nature of the issue, the more effective our response can be.

House Call Media provides healthcare trained social media management and evidence-driven content development.  This philosophy aims to address the issue of inaccurate and misleading information through provision of current and accurate best available evidence.  As part of this paradigm, it is also important to maintain an open mind to new and evolving information so that emerging evidence can be integrated in prior opinions, particularly if this were to result in changes to previous understanding or recommendations.

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REFERENCE

Suarez-Lledo V, Alvarez-Galvez J.  Prevalance of Health Misinformation on Social Media: Systematic Review.  J Med Internet Res 2021 23(1): e17187.