Abstract
BackgroundOnline misinformation proliferation during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health concern.ObjectiveWe 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.MethodsA 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.ResultsOverall, 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).ConclusionsCOVID-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.
Highlights
BackgroundCOVID-19 has brought significant challenges to public health with its high infectivity and severity, in vulnerable groups [1,2,3,4], leading to a rapid rise in cases worldwide
Of 1054 people who initially responded to the survey, five were excluded from the study as they reported that they had not encountered any COVID-19 information and could not complete the survey
Based on the Health Belief Model (HBM), our findings suggest that those who believed in misinformation that they were exposed to had lesser accurate knowledge of COVID-19, which could include inaccurate knowledge about preventive behaviors
Summary
BackgroundCOVID-19 has brought significant challenges to public health with its high infectivity and severity, in vulnerable groups (eg, older adults, those with chronic diseases) [1,2,3,4], leading to a rapid rise in cases worldwide. Social media can be used effectively to provide essential health-related information to the global community, misinformation does not require professional verification or review, and has the potential to proliferate quicker and be disseminated farther on social media due to existing algorithms that highlight popular or desired content. This highlights the tall challenge health authorities face in delivering accurate information to the public in precedence to the proliferation of misinformation [4,5] and the need for new strategies to build preparedness [9] against future infodemics. 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
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