Misinformation of COVID-19 on the Internet: Infodemiology Study
- PMID: 32250960
- PMCID: PMC7147328
- DOI: 10.2196/18444
Misinformation of COVID-19 on the Internet: Infodemiology Study
Abstract
Background: The internet has become an important source of health information for users worldwide. The novel coronavirus caused a pandemic search for information with broad dissemination of false or misleading health information.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality and readability of online information about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which was a trending topic on the internet, using validated instruments and relating the quality of information to its readability.
Methods: The search was based on the term "Wuhan Coronavirus" on the Google website (February 6, 2020). At the search time, the terms "COVID-19" or "SARS-CoV-2" (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) did not exist. Critical analysis was performed on the first 110 hits using the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark, the DISCERN instrument, and Google ranking.
Results: The first 110 websites were critically analyzed, and only 1.8% (n=2) of the websites had the HONcode seal. The JAMA benchmark showed that 39.1% (n=43) of the websites did not have any of the categories required by this tool, and only 10.0% (11/110) of the websites had the four quality criteria required by JAMA. The DISCERN score showed that 70.0% (n=77) of the websites were evaluated as having a low score and none were rated as having a high score.
Conclusions: Nonhealth personnel and the scientific community need to be aware about the quality of the information they read and produce, respectively. The Wuhan coronavirus health crisis misinformation was produced by the media, and the misinformation was obtained by users from the internet. The use of the internet has a risk to public health, and, in cases like this, the governments should be developing strategies to regulate health information on the internet without censuring the population. By February 6, 2020, no quality information was available on the internet about COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; DISCERN instrument; HONcode; JAMA benchmarks; Wuhan coronavirus; epidemiology; health information seeking; information quality; misinformation; nCoV; public health.
©Jose Yunam Cuan-Baltazar, Maria José Muñoz-Perez, Carolina Robledo-Vega, Maria Fernanda Pérez-Zepeda, Elena Soto-Vega. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 09.04.2020.
Conflict of interest statement
Conflicts of Interest: None declared.
Figures
Similar articles
-
COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment.BMJ Open. 2020 Sep 10;10(9):e040487. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040487. BMJ Open. 2020. PMID: 32912996 Free PMC article.
-
Investigating the Prevalence of Reactive Online Searching in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Infoveillance Study.J Med Internet Res. 2020 Oct 27;22(10):e19791. doi: 10.2196/19791. J Med Internet Res. 2020. PMID: 32915763 Free PMC article.
-
Evaluation of Korean-Language COVID-19-Related Medical Information on YouTube: Cross-Sectional Infodemiology Study.J Med Internet Res. 2020 Aug 12;22(8):e20775. doi: 10.2196/20775. J Med Internet Res. 2020. PMID: 32730221 Free PMC article.
-
Cross sectional analysis of scoliosis-specific information on the internet: potential for patient confusion and misinformation.Spine Deform. 2020 Dec;8(6):1159-1167. doi: 10.1007/s43390-020-00156-8. Epub 2020 Jun 23. Spine Deform. 2020. PMID: 32578159 Review.
-
Internet-Based Resources Frequently Provide Inaccurate and Out-of-Date Recommendations on Preoperative Fasting: A Systematic Review.Anesth Analg. 2016 Dec;123(6):1463-1468. doi: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000001590. Anesth Analg. 2016. PMID: 27644057 Review.
Cited by
-
Psycho-Cardiological Disease in COVID-19 Era.Rev Cardiovasc Med. 2023 Aug 18;24(8):239. doi: 10.31083/j.rcm2408239. eCollection 2023 Aug. Rev Cardiovasc Med. 2023. PMID: 39076704 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Assessing Credibility: Quality Criteria for Patients, Caregivers, and the Public in Online Health Information-A Qualitative Study.J Patient Exp. 2024 May 31;11:23743735241259440. doi: 10.1177/23743735241259440. eCollection 2024. J Patient Exp. 2024. PMID: 38827225 Free PMC article.
-
Co-creation of a novel approach for improving supply chain management for SARS-CoV-2 point of care diagnostic services in Mopani District, Limpopo Province: nominal group technique.Front Public Health. 2024 May 9;12:1378508. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1378508. eCollection 2024. Front Public Health. 2024. PMID: 38784597 Free PMC article.
-
Hidradenitis Suppurativa Online Documents Readability: An Analysis Including 23 European Languages.Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2024 Apr 16;17:853-862. doi: 10.2147/CCID.S463861. eCollection 2024. Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol. 2024. PMID: 38644990 Free PMC article.
-
Using Natural Language Processing to Explore Social Media Opinions on Food Security: Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modeling Study.J Med Internet Res. 2024 Mar 21;26:e47826. doi: 10.2196/47826. J Med Internet Res. 2024. PMID: 38512326 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Johns Hopkins University. COVID-19 information https://hub.jhu.edu/novel-coronavirus-information/
-
- Zhang T, Wu Q, Zhang Z. Probable Pangolin origin of SARS-CoV-2 associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. Curr Biol. 2020 Mar 19; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.03.022. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960-9822(20)30360-2 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
-
- ITU Statistics. Individuals using the internet 2005-2019 https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx.
-
- Fahy E, Hardikar R, Fox A, Mackay S. Quality of patient health information on the Internet: reviewing a complex and evolving landscape. Australas Med J. 2014;7(1):24–8. doi: 10.4066/AMJ.2014.1900. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/24567763 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Miscellaneous