RESUMO
@#Introduction: Social media and Internet use during disasters have been proven to be useful tools in helping public health agencies to respond to pandemics. However, this tool can also be the culprit in the spread of misinformation to the public. This study aims to identify the public health impact of misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic using the socio-ecological model. Methods: A systematic review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was initially undertaken by searching relevant articles published from January to November 2020 in several electronic databases including Medline, PubMed, and Springer link. All publications produced in English regarding the impact of misinformation during the COVID-19 outbreak were included except review articles. Results: Eleven articles were identified from these databases. The public health impact of misinformation from these articles was analysed and discussed according to the domains of the socio-ecological model. It was found that various elements of misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant impact on the individual, interpersonal, organisational, community, and policy levels across various nations. Conclusion: This study concludes that addressing misinformation during a pandemic such as the COVID-19 phenomenon is an important measure to improve public health response in mitigating the spread of pandemics.
RESUMO
@#Introduction: Health information-seeking behaviour is a process of gathering information for individuals to understand and cope with his/her health problems. Apart from the Internet or Web 1.0, Web 2.0 tools has been increasingly used as alternative to seek health information and one such tool is social media platform. This study aims to identify cognitive determinants of health information-seeking behaviour through social media platforms among Malaysian adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study by means of convenience sampling was conducted during a nationwide pandemic lockdown. Cognitive determinants were defined as respondent’s perceived usefulness, perceived ease of user, perceived benefit, perceived costs, perceived behavioural control, and perceived risk towards social media use. Questionnaires were distributed via Google Form link to multiple social media platforms and cross-platform messaging app. Differences between group of sociodemographic factors and other independent variables were tested with nonparametric tests while multiple linear regression was employed to determine the significant predictors of the health information seeking behavior. Results: A total of 705 individuals responded to the survey invitation, the majority of which were females (65%), Malay (93.6%), married (52.1%), and received tertiary education (88.5%). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that perceived benefit (β= 0.612, 95% CI: 0.517-0.708, p<0.001), perceived usefulness (β= 0.653, 95% CI: 0.453-0.853, p<0.001), and perceived risk (β= 0.131, 95% CI: 0.03-0.259, p=0.044) significantly predict health information seeking behavior through social media platform. Conclusion: Our findings provide fundamental grounds for stakeholders to better understand and influence online behavior. Staying abreast of the current online trend is crucial as more people have begun to rely on social media for health information.