Drug information, misinformation, and disinformation on social media: a content analysis study

Khaja, Khalid A. J. Al; Alkhaja, Alwaleed K.; Sequeira, Reginald P.

doi:10.1057/s41271-018-0131-2

Cited by 72 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Finally, the group of miscellaneous studies mainly examined specific medical interventions or issues such as drugs (Al Khaja et al, 2018), paediatric disease (Strychowsky et al, 2013), abortion (Bryant et al, 2014), dialysis (Garg et al, 2015), suicide (Li et al, 2018) and multiple sclerosis (Lavorgna et al, 2018). The common sources of misinformation included advertisements or comments related to advertisements (Garg et al, 2015) and patients' anecdotal experiences (Strychowsky et al, 2013).…”

Section: Othersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Literature Review on the Spread of Health-related Misinformation on Social Media

Wang

McKee

Torbica

et al. 2019

Social Science & Medicine

1,243

806

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A B S T R A C TContemporary commentators describe the current period as "an era of fake news" in which misinformation, generated intentionally or unintentionally, spreads rapidly. Although affecting all areas of life, it poses particular problems in the health arena, where it can delay or prevent effective care, in some cases threatening the lives of individuals. While examples of the rapid spread of misinformation date back to the earliest days of scientific medicine, the internet, by allowing instantaneous communication and powerful amplification has brought about a quantum change. In democracies where ideas compete in the marketplace for attention, accurate scientific information, which may be difficult to comprehend and even dull, is easily crowded out by sensationalized news. In order to uncover the current evidence and better understand the mechanism of misinformation spread, we report a systematic review of the nature and potential drivers of health-related misinformation. We searched PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus and Google databases to identify relevant methodological and empirical articles published between 2012 and 2018. A total of 57 articles were included for full-text analysis. Overall, we observe an increasing trend in published articles on health-related misinformation and the role of social media in its propagation. The most extensively studied topics involving misinformation relate to vaccination, Ebola and Zika Virus, although others, such as nutrition, cancer, fluoridation of water and smoking also featured. Studies adopted theoretical frameworks from psychology and network science, while co-citation analysis revealed potential for greater collaboration across fields. Most studies employed content analysis, social network analysis or experiments, drawing on disparate disciplinary paradigms. Future research should examine susceptibility of different sociodemographic groups to misinformation and understand the role of belief systems on the intention to spread misinformation. Further interdisciplinary research is also warranted to identify effective and tailored interventions to counter the spread of health-related misinformation online.

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Section: Othersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Literature Review on the Spread of Health-related Misinformation on Social Media

Wang

McKee

Torbica

et al. 2019

Social Science & Medicine

1,243

806

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…43 However, most of the medicine-related information on social media was shown to be ambiguous or without strong evidence to support the information. 44 Dissemination of messages through social media should be monitored by the regulatory authorities in the interest of society. 44 Certain governments and other organizations have taken the initiative to curate the information and provide the general public with authentic, good quality information through health portals.…”

Section: Smart Phone Social Media and Medicine Information Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…44 Dissemination of messages through social media should be monitored by the regulatory authorities in the interest of society. 44 Certain governments and other organizations have taken the initiative to curate the information and provide the general public with authentic, good quality information through health portals. An example is HealthInSite (now termed HealthDirect) of Australia.…”

Section: Smart Phone Social Media and Medicine Information Servicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

<p>Overview, Challenges and Future Prospects of Drug Information Services in Nepal: A Reflective Commentary</p>

Shrestha¹,

Khatiwada²,

Gyawali³

et al. 2020

JMDH

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Drug information center (DIC) or Medicine information services provides impartial, well-referenced, critically evaluated, updated information on various aspects of medications to healthcare professionals and consumers. Medicine information services also contribute to the minimization of medication errors by promoting medication education and supporting pharmaceutical services. The main objective of this reflective commentary is to highlight the recent scenario of medicine information services in Nepal, challenges for DIC, how DICs can be strengthened and future perspectives of DIC. The availability of medicine information in various online drug information sites and numerous applications (apps) have made it easier to assess the information in the country such as Nepal. However, the reliability and validity of such information should be considered before dissemination. DIC plays a crucial role in improving drug safety by aiding clinicians in safer use of medications and promoting adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting in Nepal. Financial support for operating the DIC efficiently is scarce in Nepal resulting in operational problems. The performance of the medicine information services in the country should be evaluated periodically to ensure the good quality of the service. Steps should be taken by the government, private hospitals and regulatory bodies to sustain the already established DIC and to establish additional DICs in the future to provide quality health care service to the community.

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“…From the patients' perspective, the quality of the consumed social media content is relevant because it might have direct effects on patients' decision-making or perhaps psychological implications (e.g., negative implications such as becoming reluctant to undergo a therapy because of fear, or positive implications such as encouragement for behavior change). Furthermore, it might lead to health misinformation, including spread of inaccurate or false information (e.g., antivaccination [32], anorexia promotion [33], faulty claims about dietary product and drugs [34]). However, the facet "quality of the provided content" might also be relevant from the patients' perspective in that error-prone data used by healthcare professionals in planning treatment might create patient harm.…”

Section: Data Privacy Security and Quality Assurance Are The Most Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical Considerations for Participatory Health through Social Media: Healthcare Workforce and Policy Maker Perspectives

et al. 2020

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Summary Objectives: To identify the different ethical issues that should be considered in participatory health through social media from different stakeholder perspectives (i.e., patients/service users, health professionals, health information technology (If) professionals, and policy makers) in any healthcare context. Methods: We implemented a two-round survey composed of open ended questions in the first round, aggregated into a list of ethical issues rated for importance by participants in the second round, to generate a ranked list of possible ethical issues in participatory health based on healthcare professionals’ and policy makers’ opinions on both their own point of view and their beliefs for other stakeholders’ perspectives. Results: Twenty-six individuals responded in the first round of the survey. Multiple ethical issues were identified for each perspective. Data privacy, data security, and digital literacy were common themes in all perspectives. Thirty-three individuals completed the second round of the survey. Data privacy and data security were ranked among the three most important ethical issues in all perspectives. Quality assurance was the most important issue from the healthcare professionals’ perspective and the second most important issue from the patients’ perspective. Data privacy was the most important consideration for patients/service users. Digital literacy was ranked as the fourth most important issue, except for policy makers’ perspective. Conclusions: Different stakeholders’ opinions fairly agreed that there are common ethical issues that should be considered across the four groups (patients, healthcare professionals, health IT professionals, policy makers) such as data privacy, security, and quality assurance.

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Drug information, misinformation, and disinformation on social media: a content analysis study

Cited by 72 publications

References 13 publications

Systematic Literature Review on the Spread of Health-related Misinformation on Social Media

Systematic Literature Review on the Spread of Health-related Misinformation on Social Media

<p>Overview, Challenges and Future Prospects of Drug Information Services in Nepal: A Reflective Commentary</p>

Ethical Considerations for Participatory Health through Social Media: Healthcare Workforce and Policy Maker Perspectives

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