Background Online misinformation proliferation during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health concern. Objective We aimed to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation exposure and beliefs, associated factors including psychological distress with misinformation exposure, and the associations between COVID-19 knowledge and number of preventive behaviors. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 1049 South Korean adults in April 2020. Respondents were asked about receiving COVID-19 misinformation using 12 items identified by the World Health Organization. Logistic regression was used to compute adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for the association of receiving misinformation with sociodemographic characteristics, source of information, COVID-19 misinformation belief, and psychological distress, as well as the associations of COVID-19 misinformation belief with COVID-19 knowledge and the number of COVID-19 preventive behaviors among those who received the misinformation. All data were weighted according to the Korea census data in 2018. Results Overall, 67.78% (n=711) of respondents reported exposure to at least one COVID-19 misinformation item. Misinformation exposure was associated with younger age, higher education levels, and lower income. Sources of information associated with misinformation exposure were social networking services (aOR 1.67, 95% CI 1.20-2.32) and instant messaging (aOR 1.79, 1.27-2.51). Misinformation exposure was also associated with psychological distress including anxiety (aOR 1.80, 1.24-2.61), depressive (aOR 1.47, 1.09-2.00), and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (aOR 1.97, 1.42-2.73), as well as misinformation belief (aOR 7.33, 5.17-10.38). Misinformation belief was associated with poorer COVID-19 knowledge (high: aOR 0.62, 0.45-0.84) and fewer preventive behaviors (≥7 behaviors: aOR 0.54, 0.39-0.74). Conclusions COVID-19 misinformation exposure was associated with misinformation belief, while misinformation belief was associated with fewer preventive behaviors. Given the potential of misinformation to undermine global efforts in COVID-19 disease control, up-to-date public health strategies are required to counter the proliferation of misinformation.

Background and Purpose: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has led to disruptions in health care service delivery worldwide, inevitably affecting stroke survivors requiring ongoing rehabilitation and chronic illness management. To date, no published research has been found on stroke caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to explore Hong Kong stroke caregivers’ caregiving experiences in the midst of this difficult time. Methods: Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with 25 Chinese adult primary stroke caregivers from May to June 2020 via telephone. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using an interpretive description approach and constant comparison strategy. Results: Five themes of the stroke caregiving experience during the COVID-19 pandemic emerged: care service adversities, additional caregiving workload and strain, threatened relationship between caregiver and stroke survivors, threats to caregivers’ physical and psychological well-being, and needs for continuing caregiving roles. Our findings suggested that caregivers have worsened physical and psychological well-being because of increases in care burden with simultaneously reduced formal and informal support. The relationship between caregiver and stroke survivor was subsequently affected, placing some survivors at heightened risk of abuse. Conclusions: Our study provides valuable findings about stroke caregiving experiences and needs during the pandemic. Delivery of psychological support, telemedicine, and household hygiene resources would be useful to mitigate caregivers’ psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online misinformation proliferation in the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health concern.

Background Beyond the formal curriculum of skill attainment, nursing students are able to undergo the professional socialisation process in clinical contexts and establish their identity as healthcare providers. However, the cultural context that affects the socialisation process in clinical placements is less discussed. We aimed to explore nursing students’ learning and professional socialisation during clinical placements by considering the socio-cultural contexts in South Korea. Methods A grounded theory approach was used for this research. Four rounds of in-depth and intensive interviews were carried out, with the recruitment of 16 nursing students, four nurses and two university lecturers in South Korea (29 interviews in total). A constructivist grounded theory framework was adopted to analyse the interview data. NVivo 11 was used to manage the interview data for analysis. Results The researchers identified the process of learning and professional socialisation under three core themes: 1) Struggling at the bottom of the hierarchy, 2) Acceptance and conformity, and 3) The need for ‘nunchi’ (in Korean, it means to study the atmosphere and discover the embedded intention of others’ behaviour). The results offered insights into the challenges encountered by nursing students on clinical placements and how students attempt to adapt and conform to the difficulties encountered in clinical education to maximise their learning and for their professional socialisation. The significance of the hidden curriculum was discussed. Conclusions While experiential learning is a great opportunity for students to build on their coping skills and professional socialisation, a lack of support can result in failure to manage the hidden curriculum and theoretical and practical skills. Nursing educators therefore need to orientate students to the professional culture prior to beginning clinical placements. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1690-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.