Exploring the Role of Infodemics in People’s Incompliance with Preventive Measures during the COVID-19 in Conflict Settings (Mixed Method Study)

Experiences of Governments and Public Health Agencies Regarding Crisis Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Digital Age: Protocol for a Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies

BACKGROUND

Governments and public health agencies worldwide experienced difficulties with social media-mediated infodemics on the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing public health crisis communication strategies need to be updated. However, crisis communication experiences of governments and public health agencies worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic have not been systematically compiled, necessitating updated crisis communication strategies.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review aims to collect and organize the crisis communication experiences of senders (ie, governments and public health agencies) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our focus is on exploring the difficulties that governments and public health agencies experienced, best practices in crisis communication by governments and public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic in times of infodemic, and challenges that should be overcome in future public health crises.

METHODS

We plan to begin the literature search on May 1, 2024. We will search PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Communication Abstracts, and Web of Science. We will filter our database searches to search from the year 2020 and beyond. We will use a combination of keywords by referring to the SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, and Research type) tool to search the abstracts in databases. We intend to include qualitative studies on crisis communication by governments and public health agencies (eg, officials, staff, health professionals, and researchers) to the public. Quantitative data-based studies will be excluded. Only papers written in English will be included. Data on study characteristics, study aim, participant characteristics, methodology, theoretical framework, object of crisis communication, and key results will be extracted. The methodological quality of eligible studies will be assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research. A total of 2 independent reviewers will share responsibility for screening publications, data extraction, and quality assessment. Disagreement will be resolved through discussion, and the third reviewer will be consulted, if necessary. The findings will be summarized in a table and a conceptual diagram and synthesized in a descriptive and narrative review.

RESULTS

The results will be systematically integrated and presented in a way that corresponds to our research objectives and interests. We expect the results of this review to be submitted for publication by the end of 2024.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this will be the first systematic review of the experiences of governments and public health agencies regarding their crisis communication to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review will contribute to the future improvement of the guidelines for crisis communication by governments and public health agencies to the public.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

PROSPERO CRD42024528975; https://tinyurl.com/4fjmd8te.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

PRR1-10.2196/58040.

Management of infodemics in outbreaks or health crises: a systematic review

Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined an infodemic as an overabundance of information, accurate or not, in the digital and physical space, accompanying an acute health event such as an outbreak or epidemic. It can impact people's risk perceptions, trust, and confidence in the health system, and health workers. As an immediate response, the WHO developed the infodemic management (IM) frameworks, research agenda, intervention frameworks, competencies, and processes for reference by health authorities.

Objective

This systematic review explored the response to and during acute health events by health authorities and other organizations operating in health. It also assessed the effectiveness of the current interventions.

Methods

On 26 June 2023, an online database search included Medline (Ovid), Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Epistemonikos, and the WHO website. It included English-only, peer-reviewed studies or reports covering IM processes applied by health organizations that reported their effectiveness. There was no restriction on publication dates. Two independent reviewers conducted all screening, inclusion, and quality assessments, and a third reviewer arbitrated any disagreement between the two reviewers.

Results

Reviewers identified 945 records. After a final assessment, 29 studies were included in the review and were published between 2021 and 2023. Some countries (Pakistan, Yemen, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, Finland, South Korea, and Russia) applied different methods of IM to people's behaviors. These included but were not limited to launching media and TV conservations, using web and scientific database searches, posting science-based COVID-19 information, implementing online surveys, and creating an innovative ecosystem of digital tools, and an Early AI-supported response with Social Listening (EARS) platform. Most of the interventions were effective in containing the harmful effects of COVID-19 infodemic. However, the quality of the evidence was not robust.

Discussion

Most of the infodemic interventions applied during COVID-19 fall within the recommended actions of the WHO IM ecosystem. As a result, the study suggests that more research is needed into the challenges facing health systems in different operational environments and country contexts in relation to designing, implementing, and evaluating IM interventions, strategies, policies, and systems.

Exploring Predictors of Social Media Use for Health and Wellness during COVID-19 among Adults in the US: A Social Cognitive Theory Application

During COVID-19, SM media was relied upon for health-related information-seeking and activity support. This study uses the social cognitive theory (SCT) and a representative dataset of the population in the US to explore the factors influencing patients' perceptions of SM for health-related activities. As per SCT, consolidated factors comprised personal factors (sociodemographic, health perception, self-efficacy) and environmental factors (social isolation, purpose in life). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted. Among the 6252 respondents, 95.15% rarely use SM to share personal health-related information, and 90.44% rarely use it to share general health-related information. Older individuals and Whites are less likely to consider SM for healthcare decisions. Education levels influence SM's perceived reliability. Those with positive health perceptions find SM more suitable for healthcare discussions. Socially-isolated individuals are less likely to use SM for healthcare. Those with a strong sense of purpose are less inclined to trust it for health decisions and may question its accuracy. SM-based interventions should address sociodemographic differences. Our findings contribute to the literature by SCT relevance validation in identifying the antecedents of SM use in healthcare. Our results also help to understand the challenges to its adoption. This can help enhance SM-based communication strategies and interventions.

Social Media Fact-Checking: The Effects of News Literacy and News Trust on the Intent to Verify Health-Related Information

The recent health crisis and the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence have caused misinformation on social media to flourish by becoming more sophisticated and challenging to detect. This calls upon fact-checking and questions users' competencies and attitudes when assessing social media news. Our study provides a model of how fact-checking intent is explained by news literacy and news trust to examine how users behave in the misinformation-prone social media environment. Structural equation modeling was used to examine survey data gathered from social media users. The findings revealed that users' intent to fact-check information in social media news is explained by (1) news literacy, such as the awareness of various techniques used by creators to depict situations about COVID-19; (2) news trust, in terms of the conviction that the news contains all the essential facts; and (3) intent, such as an aim to check information in multiple pieces of news. The presented findings may aid policymakers and practitioners in developing efficient communication strategies for addressing users less prone to fact-checking. Our contribution offers a new understanding of news literacy as a sufficient tool for combating misinformation, which actively equips users with knowledge and an attitude for social media news fact-checking.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward COVID-19 prevention in Yemen: a community-based cross-sectional study

Background

Pandemics, especially in fragile war-torn countries like Yemen, challenge their already strained health systems. Community adherence to pandemic prevention measures is necessary to curb the severity and spread of emerging pandemics - which is influenced by factors, such as people's knowledge and attitudes toward the pandemic. No studies in Aden have been published on the communities' knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) toward COVID-19 prevention to date. To understand adherence to pandemic prevention measures in contexts with fragile health systems, this study investigated KAP of Yemeni participants toward the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted face-to-face semi-structured questionnaires among 400 eligible participants whom were identified for participation in this study through systematic household sampling from eight districts in Aden, Yemen. Eligible participants were Yemeni community members who were ≥ 18 years, living for more than 10 years in Yemen, and were willing to voluntarily participate in the study. The questionnaire included questions surrounding the participants' COVID-19 knowledge (e.g., awareness of spread and prevention), attitudes (e.g., willingness to accept the vaccine or other prevention measures), and prevention practices during the pandemic (e.g., mask wearing, social distancing, vaccine uptake). Total KAP scores were calculated. Univariate and bivariate statistical analyses were conducted using STATA 13 software.

Results

From January to May 2021 we conducted 400 questionnaires with Yemeni community members. The average age was 41.5 ± 14.5 years (range 18-86 years). The results demonstrated that the participants in this study had an intermediate knowledge (53%) and fair attitude (58%) scores. However, participants reported very poor COVID-19 prevention practices- with only 11% demonstrating these practices. Only 25% (100/400) practiced social distancing, 25% (98/400) wore a mask, and only 6% (27/400) of participants accepted (at least one dose of) the COVID-19 vaccine. Factors associated with increased knowledge were being male, married, and surprisingly those having a primary and middle school education levels (p < 0.05). Also participants who were diagnosed with COVID-19 or had a family member diagnosed with COVID-19 (vs. those not diagnosed OR = 2.08, 95% CI 1.07-3.78, p < 0.05) were more likely to know that the vaccine protects against severe COVID-19 infection and were more likely to apply good practices such as accepting the vaccine (OR = 2.65, 95% CI 1.17-6.00, p < 0.05) compared to those who were not.

Conclusion

These findings raise awareness for the need of community-oriented education programs for COVID-19 which considers associated factors to improve the level of public knowledge, attitudes, and practices.