Corinti Francesca, Pontillo Daniela, Giansanti Daniele
Facoltà di Medicina e Psicologia, Università Sapienza, 00185 Roma, Italy.
Centro Tisp, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Roma, Italy.
Healthcare (Basel). 2022 Apr 14;10(4):732. doi: 10.3390/healthcare10040732.
The infodemic is an important component of the cyber-risk in regard to the poor and uncontrolled dissemination of information related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to perform a narrative review based on three points of view to allow for an overall picture of this issue. The points of view focused on: (a) the volume of use of social media (a key element of the infodemic) and the position of international health domain bodies; (b) the evolution of scientific production in the life sciences; (c) emerging issues. The research methodology was based on Google and PubMed searches and a qualification process based on a standard checklist and an evaluation of eligibility based on parameters with five score levels applied by two experts (plus one in case of discrepancy). The three points of view stressed the key role of social media as a dissemination tool of the infodemic among citizens. The impact on citizens depends on various social factors and involves indirect (e.g., vaccine avoidance) and direct risks such as mental problems and the risk of suicide. The widespread diffusion of social media, conveyed by mobile technologies, also suggests their use as countermeasures, calibrated based on citizens’ level of both technological and health literacy. Effective and promising countermeasures in this direction are based both on initiatives of contact by apps or SMS and the collection of data based on surveys and finalized to the particular intervention. The review also suggests as further areas of in-depth research: (a) to combat high-level infodemic produced by scientific publications that are not yet official (preprint) or that have undergone peer review with bias/distortion; (b) focusing on the impact of the infodemic considering its spread in different languages.
信息疫情是网络风险的一个重要组成部分，涉及与新冠疫情相关信息的不良和无节制传播。本研究的目的是基于三个视角进行叙述性综述，以全面呈现这一问题。这些视角聚焦于：(a) 社交媒体的使用量（信息疫情的一个关键要素）以及国际卫生领域机构的立场；(b) 生命科学领域科研成果的演变；(c) 新出现的问题。研究方法基于谷歌和PubMed搜索，以及一个基于标准清单的筛选过程和基于五个评分等级参数的合格性评估，由两位专家进行评估（如有分歧则由第三位专家参与）。这三个视角强调了社交媒体作为信息疫情在公民中传播工具的关键作用。对公民的影响取决于各种社会因素，涉及间接风险（如疫苗接种回避）和直接风险，如心理问题和自杀风险。移动技术推动的社交媒体广泛传播，也表明可将其用作应对措施，并根据公民的技术和健康素养水平进行校准。在这方面有效且有前景的应对措施既基于通过应用程序或短信进行的接触举措，也基于基于调查的数据收集，并针对特定干预进行优化。该综述还建议将以下内容作为进一步深入研究的领域：(a) 打击由尚未正式发布（预印本）或经过有偏差/扭曲的同行评审的科学出版物产生的高级别信息疫情；(b) 考虑信息疫情在不同语言中的传播情况，关注其影响。
