Exploring content of misinformation about HPV vaccine on twitter

Abstract

Although social media can be a source of guidance about HPV vaccination for parents, the information may not always be complete or accurate. We conducted a retrospective content analysis to identify content and frequencies of occurrence of disinformation and misinformation about HPV vaccine posted on Twitter between December 15, 2019, through March 31, 2020, among 3876 unique, English language #HPV Tweets, excluding retweets. We found that 24% of Tweets contained disinformation or misinformation, and the remaining 76% contained support/education. The most prevalent categories of disinformation/misinformation were (1) adverse health effects (59%), (2) mandatory vaccination (19%), and (3) inefficacy of the vaccine (14%). Among the adverse health effects Tweets, non-specific harm/injury (51%) and death (23%) were most frequent. Disinformation/misinformation Tweets vs. supportive Tweets had 5.44 (95% CI 5.33–5.56) times the incidence rate of retweet. In conclusion , almost one-quarter of #HPV Tweets contained disinformation or misinformation about the HPV vaccine and these tweets received higher audience engagement including likes and retweets. Implications for vaccine hesitancy are discussed.

Exploring Public Discussions Regarding COVID-19 Vaccinations on Microblogs in China: Findings from Machine Learning Algorithms

“…Sentiment analysis, as a machine learning technique, is used to detect the positive, negative, or neutral sentiments expressed in a text [ 22 ]. It is typically used to analyze the content of web-based texts [ 11 , 16 , 17 ], and has been increasingly popular in the field of public health and preventive medicine [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Thus far, there are several sentiment dictionaries such as the English NRC sentiment dictionary and Chinese Emotional Vocabulary Ontology Database of the Dalian University of Technology that have been widely used to uncover sentiments expressed in web texts [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Broad perspectives in understanding vaccine hesitancy and vaccine confidence: an introduction to the special issue

“…They suggest that social media messaging needs to be carefully designed to take into consideration the power of political identity, while at the same time finding ways to depoliticize communication about vaccine safety and efficacy. Kornides et al (2023) conducted a content analysis of English language Tweets associated with HPV vaccine, finding that nearly one quarter of the Tweets involved disinformation or misinformation (e.g., false claims regarding adverse health effects and of vaccine inefficacy), while the majority of Tweets were supportive or educational regarding HPV vaccination. Although misinformation Tweets were less frequent, they were much more frequently retweeted and had more engagement from viewers than supportive Tweets.…”

Human papillomavirus vaccination and contributing factors of vaccination intention among adolescents and young adults in China from a socio‐ecological perspective: A cross‐sectional study

“…In fact, there is much negative and inaccurate content about HPV vaccine on the Internet, such as the distrust of pharmaceutical companies, concerns about side effects and safety of vaccines. When individuals are exposed to negative social media content, the problem of greater HPV vaccine refusal and lower HPV vaccination coverage could occur (Kornides et al., 2023; Margolis et al., 2019). In the present study, eHealth literacy was a significant factor for differences between willingness group and unwillingness group in the univariate analysis.…”