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Impact of Conspiracy beliefs on Covid-19 Fear, and Health Protective Behavior: A Case of University Students
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated the impact of conspiracy beliefs on fear of Covid-19 and health protective behavior of university students in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted at three universities in Punjab (e.g. two public sectors and one private sector) with permission from concerned authorities for data collection. A total of 374 responses were received that were analyzed by applying both descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings
The results indicated the prevalence of conspiracy beliefs and fear of Covid-19 among university students of two public sector universities and one private sector university. Furthermore, the conspiracy beliefs of university students predicted their fear of Covid-19. However, conspiracy beliefs did not predict the health protective behavior of university students.
Research limitations/implications
These results had serious implications for public health in Pakistan demonstrating the critical need for health education and promotion as individual preparedness along with system preparedness is essential to combat Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic. These results are useful for policymakers, healthcare professionals, university administration and library staff for making evidence-based decisions toward health education and promotion related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
It is hoped that the present study would make an invaluable contribution to existing research on promotional health in general and the role of conspiracy beliefs in putting public health at risk in particular as limited studies have been published so far.
... In the context of a decreasing and/or diminished interest in or avoidance of ambiguity, news about COVID-19 was found to be associated with younger ages, greater post-traumatic stress symptoms, decreasing fear of COVID-19, and less frequent use of healthcare professionals in accessing COVID-19 information [17]. At the same time, belief in conspiracy theories may predict fear of the coronavirus [18]. Consequently, there are numbers of the factors involved in the analysis and synthesis of information-whether it is reliable or inaccurate or completely false-about the coronavirus. ...
... In addition, a negative correlation between a general belief in conspiracy theories and contact-related preventive behaviors was found [40]. However, while evidence suggests that conspiracy beliefs could predict fear of the coronavirus [18,37], findings regarding relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and health-protective behaviors vary between studies [18,40]. ...
... In addition, a negative correlation between a general belief in conspiracy theories and contact-related preventive behaviors was found [40]. However, while evidence suggests that conspiracy beliefs could predict fear of the coronavirus [18,37], findings regarding relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and health-protective behaviors vary between studies [18,40]. ...
This study investigated the relationship between fear of the coronavirus, belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and dimensions of the need for cognitive closure. As there is evidence of associations between these variables, we hypothesized that the relationship between the need for closure dimensions and coronavirus fear may be mediated by conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19. We analyzed the results from 380 individuals who completed online versions of three scales: the Fear of COVID-19 Scale: a short version of the Need for Closure Scale: and—designed for this study—the Conspiracy Theories about the Coronavirus Scale. The results showed that belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories fully mediated the relationship between the fear of the coronavirus and avoidance of ambiguity, as well as closed-mindedness. The findings provided evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories may play a significant role in reducing the level of coronavirus fear in people with high levels of these traits. In addition, a partial mediation between the fear of the coronavirus and the need for predictability was found. The limitations and implications of the research are discussed.
... These two stages occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought a unique context to the emotional struggles of individuals, especially those with depression. The COVID-19 pandemic and a surge of infodemic caused fear for many people and negatively affected their mental health (Naveed et al., 2021). Furthermore, public health measures to curtail COVID-19, including self-isolation, rigorous quarantine and closed borders (Charlson et al., 2016) interfered with most people's routine activities (Li et al., 2020). ...
... During the COVID-19 lockdown, depression steadily spread among isolated and quarantined individuals (Brooks et al., 2020), resulting in increased socialization on social media to maintain a connection (Ye and Ho, 2022). Due to the increased psychological pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic (Naveed et al., 2021), there was an upsurge in discussions that focused on emotional support and companionship support in the group. These short-lived topics were only prominent during these two stages. ...
Purpose
This study aims to explore the evolutionary pattern of discussion topics over time in an online depression self-help community.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) method, the authors analyzed 17,534 posts and 138,567 comments posted over 8 years on an online depression self-help group in China and identified the major discussion topics. Based on significant changes in the frequency of posts over time, the authors identified five stages of development. Through a comparative analysis of discussion topics in the five stages, the authors identified the changes in the extent and range of topics over time. The authors discuss the influence of socio-cultural factors on depressed individuals' health information behavior.
Findings
The results illustrate an evolutionary pattern of topics in users' discussion in the online depression self-help group, including five distinct stages with a sequence of topic changes. The discussion topics of the group included self-reflection, daily record, peer diagnosis, companionship support and instrumental support. While some prominent topics were discussed frequently in each stage, some topics were short-lived.
Originality/value
While most prior research has ignored topic changes over time, the study takes an evolutionary perspective of online discussion topics among depressed individuals. The authors provide a nuanced account of the progression of topics through five distinct stages, showing that the community experienced a sequence of changes as it developed. Identifying this evolutionary pattern extends the scope of research on depression therapy in China and offers a deeper understanding of the support that individuals with depression seek, receive and provide online.
... Low e-Health literacy coupled with misinformation had greatly impacted individuals' capacity to respond to the crisis by hindering timely and effective adoption of appropriate behaviors and health measures (Reber et al., 2019). Several studies suggested that information literacy and e-Health literacy could significantly improve health outcomes by decreasing anxiety, stress and risks of other morbidities during pandemic (Abdel-Latif, 2020; Chong et al., 2020;Laato et al., 2020;Malik et al., 2021;Naveed et al., 2021;Weiss and Paasche-Orlow, 2020). Moreover, health literacy impacts the selection of information source and the challenges associated with searching, filtering and assessing the quality and relevancy of information (Zhang et al., 2017). ...
... Identifying the common barriers faced by people while seeking and sharing COVID-19 information on social media will enable to health information providers to make information easily available (Alagili and Bamashmous, 2021). During COVID-19, researchers highlighted the value of e-Health literacy that could enable individuals to recognize and combat misinformation on social media, and lead them to improved health outcomes by decreasing anxiety and adhering to preventive behavior during pandemic (Chong et al., 2020;Laato et al., 2020;Malik et al., 2021;Naveed et al., 2021;Weiss and Paasche-Orlow, 2020). ...
Social media such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Twitter have radically enhanced the public access to health information. Still, studies have unexplored the factors that contribute toward such behaviors especially in developing countries. Therefore, this study identifies the factors that contribute to the likelihood of young adults’ health information seeking and sharing on social media. Specifically, drawing upon health belief model (HBM), the study attempts to understand how health belief and e-Health literacy affects health information seeking and sharing on social media. The study collected data from 413 young adults through Google Forms on a random basis. The results generated applying structural equation modeling confirmed that HBM related factors such as perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and perceived benefits positively while perceived barriers negatively influence young adults’ health information seeking and sharing intentions on social media. Furthermore, e-Health literacy was positively associated with health information seeking and sharing intentions on social media. This study is amongst a first few studies in the context of developing world to investigate the young adults’ intentions of seeking and sharing health information on social media based on HBM.
... According to academics Rocha et al. (2021), information technologies may significantly aid in the containment efforts of any infectious disease. Therefore, health education and promotion are urgently needed since fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and infodemic requires both system and individual readiness (Naveed et al., 2021). Social media may be used in emergency situations and are aware of the benefits and dangers of scientific communication on social media during COVID-19 (Li et al., 2021). ...
Purpose – The paper aims to investigate the most influential social media information sources to trust in healthcare facilities. The article shows a valuable point of reference for understanding how social media becomes the casting of social capital.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper has taken 660 responses from the people who used social media for healthcare information in the mid of 2020 during the pandemic. The people were approached through different social media groups. The paper conducted structural equation modelling (SEM). The result has shown that with the instigating power of social capital where people put trust in social media information during pandemics.
Findings – The findings demonstrated that personal sources, government organisations and healthcare professionals are the most influential sources of social media. In order to effectively ensure the encompassing provision of COVID-19 health services, this article argues that social capital considerations establish trust
between healthcare facilities seeking community to healthcare information providers.
Research limitations/implications – This research has signified that social cohesion and concern for community welfare instigated people to engage in social media communication. The inherent social capital belongings influence people to trust the sources of health information from selected sources that appear on social media.
Practical implications – Healthcare policymakers may utilise this intense feeling of belongingness and cohesion of social capital and use social media platforms to spread health-related information.
Originality/value – The study shows social capital has the strength to entice people into healthcare-seeking behaviour. In this era, social capital is reformulated to digital social capital through social media and strongly affects people’s trust.
Keywords: Social capital, Trust, Social media, Healthcare, Healthcare information, Information technologies
... In many studies, anti-COVID-19 health protective attitudes and behavior were negatively related to COVID-19 CBs (Biddlestone et al., 2020;Bierwiaczonek et al., 2020;Earnshaw et al., 2020;Egorova et al., 2020;Kowalski et al., 2020;Rieger, 2020;Romer and Jamieson, 2020;Abadi et al., 2021;Allington et al., 2021;Farias and Pilati, 2021;Karić and Mededović, 2021;Resnicow et al., 2021;Soveri et al., 2021;Chayinska et al., 2022;Latkin et al., 2022;Pavela Banai et al., 2022;Garry et al., 2022;Hughes et al., 2022;Pummerer et al., 2022) and conspiracy mentality (Gualda et al., 2021;Oleksy et al., 2021a;Pellegrini et al., 2021;Plohl and Musil, 2021;Maftei and Holman, 2022). However, sometimes no relationship (Prichard and Christman, 2020;Alper et al., 2021;Naveed et al., 2021;Schnell et al., 2021;Šuriņa et al., 2021;Yarosh et al., 2021) or even positive relationships (Alper et al., 2021;Corbu et al., 2021;Wang and Kim, 2021) between these variables were reported. This may be the case because different CBs about COVID-19 can have different and opposite behavioral consequences depending on the content of the conspiracies (Imhoff and Lamberty, 2020;Chan et al., 2021;Jia and Luo, 2021). ...
Background:
The number of psychological studies on conspiracy beliefs has been systematically growing for about a dozen years, but in recent years, the trend has intensified. We provided a review covering the psychological literature on conspiracy beliefs from 2018 to 2021. Halfway through this period, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, accompanied by an explosion of movements based on conspiracy theories, intensifying researchers' interest in this issue.
Methods:
Adhering to PRISMA guidelines, the review systematically searched for relevant journal articles published between 2018 and 2021. A search was done on Scopus and Web of Science (only peer-reviewed journals). A study was included if it contained primary empirical data, if specific or general conspiracy belief(s) were measured and if its correlation with at least one other psychological variable was reported. All the studies were grouped for the descriptive analysis according to the methodology used, the participants' characteristics, the continent of origin, the sample size, and the conspiracy beliefs measurement tools. Due to substantial methodological heterogeneity of the studies, narrative synthesis was performed. The five researchers were assigned specific roles at each stage of the analysis to ensure the highest quality of the research.
Results:
Following the proposed methodology, 308 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility and 274 articles (417 studies) meeting the inclusion criteria were identified and included in the review. Almost half of the studies (49.6%) were conducted in European countries. The vast majority of the studies (85.7%) were carried out on samples of adult respondents. The research presents antecedents as well as (potential) consequences of conspiracy beliefs. We grouped the antecedents of conspiracy beliefs into six categories: cognitive (e.g., thinking style) motivational (e.g., uncertainty avoidance), personality (e.g., collective narcissism), psychopathology (e.g., Dark Triad traits), political (e.g., ideological orientation), and sociocultural factors (e.g., collectivism).
Conclusion and limitations:
The research presents evidence on the links between conspiracy beliefs and a range of attitudes and behaviors considered unfavorable from the point of view of individuals and of the society at large. It turned out that different constructs of conspiracy thinking interact with each other. The limitations of the study are discussed in the last part of the article.
... Avoidance of preventative measures and the decrease of people's awareness of the harmfulness of Covid-19 virus are two of these outcomes. (Allington et al., 2021;Naveed et al., 2021). ...
Misinformation has been existed for centuries, though emerge as a severe concern in the age of social media, and particularly during COVID-19 global pandemic. As the pandemic approached, a massive influx of mixed quality data appeared on social media, which had adverse effects on society. This study highlights the possible factors contributing to the sharing and spreading misinformation through social media during the crisis. Preferred Reporting Items and Meta-Analysis guidelines were used for systematic review. Anxiety or risk perception associated with COVID-19 was one of the significant motivators for misinformation sharing, followed by entertainment, information seeking, sociability, social tie strength, self-promotion, trust in science, self-efficacy, and altruism. WhatsApp and Facebook were the most used platforms for spreading rumors and misinformation. The results indicated five significant factors associated with COVID-19 misinformation sharing on social media, including socio-demographic characteristics, financial considerations, political affiliation or interest, conspiracy ideation, and religious factors. Misinformation sharing could have profound consequences for individual and society and impeding the efforts of government and health institutions to manage the crisis. This SLR focuses solely on quantitative studies, hence, studies are overlooked from a qualitative standpoint. Furthermore, this study only looked at the predictors of misinformation sharing behavior during COVID-19. It did not look into the factors that could curb the sharing of misinformation on social media platforms as a whole. The study’s findings will help the public, in general, to be cautious about sharing misinformation, and the health care workers, and institutions, in particular, for devising strategies and measures to reduce the flow of misinformation by releasing credible information through concerned official social media accounts. The findings will be valuable for health professionals and government agencies to devise strategies for handling misinformation during public health emergencies.
Background: Covid-19 literacy, a social vaccine, is crucial to cope pandemic situations as it helps individuals to manage panic situations, adopt health preventive behaviours and adapting to the new normal.
Objectives: This research examined the effects of Covid-19 literacy on fear, protective behaviour, and conspiracy beliefs of university students using an online questionnaire.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at two universities from Lahore with permission from concerned authorities. A total of 301 received responses were analyzed by applying descriptive as well as inferential statistics in SPSS.
Results: The results indicated that Covid-19 literacy appeared to predict negatively fear of Covid-19 and conspiracy beliefs and positively health-protective behaviours. In other words, the university students with better Covid-19 literacy appeared to have less fear of Covid-19, more likely to adopt health-protective behaviours and believe less in conspirative information.
Conclusions: These results demonstrated the potential benefits of Covid-19 literacy to respond proactively to the fear caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, managing infodemic and adoption of health-protective behaviours. These results would be useful for policymakers, NGOs, health professionals, and university librarians in planning health education and promotion for not only university students but also for general public. This research contributed to the existing research on health literacy related to the Covid-19 pandemic in general and Covid-19 literacy in particular as limited studies have been published so far.
Purpose
The impact of COVID-19 has led to a surge in the public’s reliance on the Internet for pandemic information, and the policy of home isolation has exacerbated this. This study aimed to investigate public information needs and ways of accessing and disseminating information during COVID-19 in mainland China.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative research approach to conduct semi-structured interviews with 15 participants from 9 cities in mainland China about information needs and access behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak. All interview recordings were converted into text and proofread, then coded and summarised in correspondence with the research questions using the grounded theory.
Findings
This study summarized the dynamics of public information needs during the 2.5-year pandemic and identified the difficulties in accessing certain information.
Originality/value
Although information needs of public health emergencies have been a hot topic during COVID-19, scant studies focus on information needs in specific countries in Asia, especially in mainland China, the first country with a major outbreak and stringent lockdown mandates. Therefore, the current study is well enriched by focusing on information demand behavior in the context of COVID-19. Possible measures for improvement were also given to existing and potential problems, taking into account the participants’ views.
Purpose
This study aims to evaluate level of fear and the tendency toward orthorexia nervosa (ON) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the university students receiving health education.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 765 students, consisting of 626 females (81.8%) and 139 males (18.2%) were included in the study. The demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26), Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) and the tendency toward ON were assessed using an online questionnaire.
Findings
The FCV-19S scores differed according to gender and were higher in the female students ( P < 0.001). In students with a high EAT-26 score, the tendency toward ON was higher ( P < 0.001). According to estimated regression models, a unit increase of the FCV-19S scores led to a decrease of 0.10 points in the Orthorexia Nervosa Evaluation Scale-11 (ORTO-11) scores. It was determined that students with high FCV-19S scores had a tendency toward ON and increased EAT-26 scores ( P < 0.001 and P = 0.004, respectively). There was a weak negative correlation between the FCV-19S score and the ORTO-11 score ( P < 0.001) and a weak positive correlation between the FCV-19S score and the EAT-26 score ( P = 0.001).
Originality
In this cross-sectional study, it was determined that the fear of COVID-19 was related to an increase in the tendency toward ON and eating attitude in students receiving health education. Because of the fear and ON tendencies of students due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be beneficial to provide education on adequate and balanced nutrition during this period.
Purpose
This study focused on parents' health anxiety by proxy about their children when they started learning online during the COVID-19 pandemic, to explore the impact of academic stress by parent-proxy on parents' learning support services with the mediating role of health anxiety by parent-proxy and the moderating role of parental educational level.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 8,940 primary school students' parents participated in the study. Bootstrapping was performed to test the constructed model.
Findings
(1) Academic stress by parent-proxy positively predicted health anxiety by parent-proxy. (2) Health anxiety by parent-proxy significantly positively predicted learning support services. (3) Academic stress by parent-proxy also significantly positively predicted learning support services. (4) Academic stress by parent-proxy positively predicted parents' learning support services through the mediating effect of health anxiety by parent-proxy. (5) Parental educational level moderated the relationship between academic stress by parent-proxy, health anxiety by parent-proxy, and learning support services. Academics and parents will benefit from the conclusions of this study in both theory and practice.
Originality/value
During the COVID-19 pandemic, offline learning has been replaced with online learning, which has brought with it many physical and mental health problems, including additional academic stress. Most studies on learning support services have focused on offline learning. However, this study explored the relationships between academic stress by parent-proxy, health anxiety by parent-proxy, learning support services, and parental educational level in the context of online learning. Results show that it is necessary to pay attention to academic stress and health to provide children with appropriate learning support services.
Purpose
This study investigated the relationship between generalised trust and psychological well-being in college students, considering the social support obtained from their social networks via Twitter and face-to-face (FTF) interactions. Initially, the authors planned to collect data at the beginning of the first semester in 2019 for fine-tuning the model as a pilot study, and in 2020 for the main study. However, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the data helped authors to analyse changes in young people's psychological situation before and during the pandemic in Japan.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducted a self-report survey targeting college students in the Kanto region in Japan. Data were collected from mid-May to the end of June 2019, as well as in early to mid-June 2020, with 304 and 584 responses, respectively. The collected data were analysed using structural equation modelling and a multiple regression analysis.
Findings
The findings using the 2019 data set indicated that (a) students mostly used Twitter for information gathering and sharing of hobbies, and they received both informatics and emotional support from Twitter, and from FTF interactions; (b) there were direct positive effects of generalised trust and social skills on their psychological well-being; and (c) students with lower levels of generalised trust tended to interact with very intimate individuals using Twitter to obtain social support, which did not have any effects on their improvement of psychological well-being. From the 2020 data set, the authors also found that, like 2019, generalised trust and social skills had direct effects on the improvement of psychological well-being. Additionally, we observed that students spent more time using Twitter and received more emotional support from it, as most people tried not to meet other people in person due to the first State of Emergency in Japan. Similarly, the authors found that in 2019, only social support from very intimate partners via FTF communication had slightly significant effects on improving their psychological well-being, whereas in 2020, their expectation for social networks via FTF had decreased their levels of psychological well-being, but their social support from Twitter had slightly significant effects on their improvement of psychological well-being. One of the main reasons for this might be due to the challenge of meeting with others in person, and therefore, social support from Twitter partially played a role that traditionally was only beneficial through FTF communication.
Originality/value
We understand that this is one of the few social psychological studies on social media that collected data both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides unique evidence in demonstrating how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed college students communication behaviours.
This research investigated the levels of health literacy among Pakistani university students in the Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic. The university students were surveyed using an online questionnaire at two public sector universities and one private sector university in Punjab-Pakistan. The administration of the data collection instrument was completed with permission from concerned authorities. A total of 374 responses received which were imported to SPSS and analyzed by applying descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The results revealed that the health literacy of university students in the Covid-19 pandemic and infodemic was not at an optimal level as these participants expressed difficulty for half of the items of the health literacy scale. A large majority of these students had health literacy from low to moderate levels. Besides, the students' age, sex, study program, and Covid-19 testing did not appear to predict their health literacy. However, the geographical background of these students predicted their health literacy indicating that urban had students had higher literacy as compared to rural students. The results of this study indicated the need for health education and promotion among the general public in Pakistan especially university students as they serve as a change agent for people around them. The program for health literacy related to Covid-19 would be a great step to respond proactively to the pandemic and infodemic situation. Hoping, these results would be helpful for not only policymakers, healthcare providers, health information professionals especially engaged in health promotion but also for library staff to play their role in the health emergency related to Covid-19. This study would be a worthy contribution to the existing research on health literacy as a limited amount of research appeared from developing countries like Pakistan.
Health literacy is an essential to respond proactively to pandemic situations like Covid-19. It helps the general public to reduce the spread of infectious diseases, prevent from over-reactions, reduce carelessness, adopt health protective behavior. The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of health literacy on fear of Covid-19, protective behavior, and conspiracy beliefs of university students in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted at two public sector universities in Punjab with permission. A total of 271 received responses were analyzed by applying both descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS. The results indicated students' gender had a relationship with their health protective behavior indicating that female students were more likely to adopt health protective behavior as compared to male students. Besides, the students' health literacy did not predict their fear of Covid-19 and conspiracy beliefs. However, the health literacy of university students predicted their health protective behavior which meant that the students with better health literacy likely to adopt health protective behavior related to Covid-19 infection. There was a need for promotion of health literacy related to Covid-19 to fight not only the current pandemic situation but also an infodemic associated with it. These results are useful for policymakers, health professionals, university and library administration for promoting health and creating awareness related to Covid-19 pandemic. It would also be helpful in developing useful directions for health literacy programs promoting health education and protective behavior to avoid and management Covid-19 infection. This research would make a worthy addition to existing research on health literacy as limited empirical studies have been conducted so far.
Rationale:
The COVID-19 pandemic poses extraordinary challenges to public health.
Objective:
Because the novel coronavirus is highly contagious, the widespread use of preventive measures such as masking, physical distancing, and eventually vaccination is needed to bring it under control. We hypothesized that accepting conspiracy theories that were circulating in mainstream and social media early in the COVID-19 pandemic in the US would be negatively related to the uptake of preventive behaviors and also of vaccination when a vaccine becomes available.
Method:
A national probability survey of US adults (N = 1050) was conducted in the latter half of March 2020 and a follow-up with 840 of the same individuals in July 2020. The surveys assessed adoption of preventive measures recommended by public health authorities, vaccination intentions, conspiracy beliefs, perceptions of threat, belief about the safety of vaccines, political ideology, and media exposure patterns.
Results:
Belief in three COVID-19-related conspiracy theories was highly stable across the two periods and inversely related to the (a) perceived threat of the pandemic, (b) taking of preventive actions, including wearing a face mask, (c) perceived safety of vaccination, and (d) intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Conspiracy beliefs in March predicted subsequent mask-wearing and vaccination intentions in July even after controlling for action taken and intentions in March. Although adopting preventive behaviors was predicted by political ideology and conservative media reliance, vaccination intentions were less related to political ideology. Mainstream television news use predicted adopting both preventive actions and vaccination.
Conclusions:
Because belief in COVID-related conspiracy theories predicts resistance to both preventive behaviors and future vaccination for the virus, it will be critical to confront both conspiracy theories and vaccination misinformation to prevent further spread of the virus in the US. Reducing those barriers will require continued messaging by public health authorities on mainstream media and in particular on politically conservative outlets that have supported COVID-related conspiracy theories.
There is an "infodemic" associated with the COVID-19 pandemic-an overabundance of valid and invalid information. Health literacy is the ability to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information, making it crucial for navigating coronavirus and COVID-19 information environments. A cross-sectional representative study of participants ≥ 16 years in Germany was conducted using an online survey. A coronavirus-related health literacy measure was developed (HLS-COVID-Q22). Internal consistency was very high (α = 0.940; ρ = 0.891) and construct validity suggests a sufficient model fit, making HLS-COVID-Q22 a feasible tool for assessing coronavirus-related health literacy in population surveys. While 49.9% of our sample had sufficient levels of coronavirus-related health literacy, 50.1% had "problematic" (15.2%) or "inadequate" (34.9%) levels. Although the overall level of health literacy is high, a vast number of participants report difficulties dealing with coronavirus and COVID-19 information. The participants felt well informed about coronavirus, but 47.8% reported having difficulties judging whether they could trust media information on COVID-19. Confusion about coronavirus information was significantly higher among those who had lower health literacy. This calls for targeted public information campaigns and promotion of population-based health literacy for better navigation of information environments during the infodemic, identification of disinformation, and decision-making based on reliable and trustworthy information.
Background:
Social distancing is an effective preventative policy for COVID-19 that is enforced by governments worldwide. However, significant variations are observed in following the policy across individuals and countries. Arguably, differences in citizens' adherence actions will be influenced by their perceptions about government's plans and the information available to guide their behaviors-more so in the digital age in the realm of mass influence of social media on citizens. Insights into the underlying factors and dynamics involved with citizens' adherence process will inform the policymakers to follow appropriate communication and messaging approaches to influence citizens' willingness to adhere to the recommendations.
Objective:
The study's objective is a comparative evaluation of citizens' adherence process to COVID-19 relevant recommendations by the government. The focus is on how three different countries' (United States, Kuwait, and South Korea) citizens, randomly sampled, respond to governments' pandemic guidance efforts. We draw insights into two categories of perceived government roles in managing the pandemic: (1) citizens' perceptions of government's role in responding to the pandemic (2) citizens' perceptions of government's business reopening efforts. Undoubtedly, the internet and social media have burgeoned, yet differing effects on shaping individuals' views and assessments of the COVID-19 situation, we argue and test for the effects of information sources, social media use, and knowledge on the adherence actions.
Methods:
Randomly sampled online survey data collected by a global firm in May 2020, from citizens of the United States, Kuwait, and South Korea. A nonlinear ordered probit regression, controlling for several counterfactuals, was used for analysis. The focal estimated effects of the study were compared across countries using the weighted distance between the parameter estimates.
Results:
The total sample size is 482 respondents, of which 207 (43%) lived in US, 181 (38%) lived in Kuwait, and 94 (20%) lived in South Korea. Ordered probit estimation results suggest that overall, perception of government response efforts positively influences self-adherence (P<.001) and others'-adherence (P<.001) to social distancing and sheltering. Perception of government business reopening efforts positively influences others'-adherence (P<.001). Higher intensity of general health information source for COVID-19 has a positive effect on self-adherence (P=.003). Higher intensity of social media source use for COVID-19 positively influences others'-adherence (P=.002). Higher intensity of knowledge on COVID-19 positively influences self-adherence (P=.008) and negatively influences others'-adherence (P<.001). There are country-level variations - broadly, the United States and Kuwait has better effects than South Korea.
Conclusions:
As the COVID-19 global pandemic continues to grow, and governmental restrictions are ongoing, it is critical to understand people's frustration to reduce panic and promote social distancing to facilitate the control of the pandemic. The study finds that the government plays a central role in terms of adherence to restrictions. Governments need to enhance their efforts on publicizing information on the pandemic, as well as employ strategies for improved communication management to citizens through social media as well as mainstream information sources.
During the coronavirus disease pandemic rising in 2020, governments and nongovernmental organizations across the globe have taken great efforts to curb the infection rate by promoting or legally prescribing behavior that can reduce the spread of the virus. At the same time, this pandemic has given rise to speculations and conspiracy theories. Conspiracy worldviews have been connected to refusal to trust science, the biomedical model of disease, and legal means of political engagement in previous research. In three studies from the United States ( N = 220; N = 288) and the UK ( N = 298), we went beyond this focus on a general conspiracy worldview and tested the idea that different forms of conspiracy beliefs despite being positively correlated have distinct behavioral implications. Whereas conspiracy beliefs describing the pandemic as a hoax were more strongly associated with reduced containment-related behavior, conspiracy beliefs about sinister forces purposefully creating the virus related to an increase in self-centered prepping behavior.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic causes fear, as its immediate consequences for the public have produced unprecedented challenges for the education and healthcare systems. We aimed to validate the fear of COVID-19 scale (FCoV-19S) and examine the association of its scores with health literacy and health-related behaviors among medical students. A cross-sectional study was conducted from 7 to 29 April 2020 on 5423 students at eight universities across Vietnam, including five universities in the North, one university in the Center, two universities in the South. An online survey questionnaire was used to collect data on participants' characteristics, health literacy, fear of COVID-19 using the FCoV-19S, and health-related behaviors. The results showed that seven items of the FCoV-19S strongly loaded on one component, explained 62.15% of the variance, with good item-scale convergent validity and high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90). Higher health literacy was associated with lower FCoV-19S scores (coefficient, B, −0.06; 95% confidence interval, 95%CI, −0.08, −0.04; p < 0.001). Older age or last academic years, being men, and being able to pay for Int. medication were associated with lower FCoV-19S scores. Students with higher FCoV-19S scores more likely kept smoking (odds ratio, OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.08, 1.14; p < 0.001) or drinking alcohol (OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02, 1.06; p < 0.001) at an unchanged or higher level during the pandemic, as compared to students with lower FCoV-19S scores. In conclusion, the FCoV-19S is valid and reliable in screening for fear of COVID-19. Health literacy was found to protect medical students from fear. Smoking and drinking appeared to have a negative impact on fear of COVID-19. Strategic public health approaches are required to reduce fear and promote healthy lifestyles during the pandemic.
Objectives: To explore the variation in understanding, attitudes and uptake of COVID-19 health advice during the 2020 pandemic lockdown by health literacy.
Study design: National cross sectional community survey.
Setting: Australian general public.
Participants: Adults aged over 18 years (n=4362).
Main outcome measures: Knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to COVID-19; health literacy and socio-demographic factors.
Results: People with inadequate health literacy had poorer understanding of COVID-19 symptoms (49% vs 68%; p<0.001), were less able to identify behaviours to prevent infection (59% vs 72%; p<0.001), and experienced more difficulty finding information and understanding government messaging about COVID-19 than people with adequate health literacy. They were less likely to rate social distancing as important (6.1 vs 6.5, p<0.001) and reported more difficulty remembering/accessing medication since lockdown (3.6 vs 2.7, p<0.001). Importantly there was higher endorsement of misinformation beliefs related to COVID-19 and vaccination in people with lower health literacy. Similar results were observed among people who primarily speak a language other than English at home.
Conclusion: Our findings show important disparities by health literacy and language in COVID-19 related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that have the potential to undermine efforts to reduce viral transmission and may lead to social inequalities in health outcomes in Australia. Those with the greatest burden of chronic disease are most disadvantaged, and most likely to experience severe disease and die from COVID-19. Addressing the health literacy needs of the community in public health messaging about COVID-19 must now be a priority in Australia.
Background:
In the first few months of 2020, information and news reports about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were rapidly published and shared on social media and social networking sites. While the field of infodemiology has studied information patterns on the Web and in social media for at least 18 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has been referred to as the first social media infodemic. However, there is limited evidence about whether and how the social media infodemic has spread panic and affected the mental health of social media users.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to determine how social media affects self-reported mental health and the spread of panic about COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Methods:
To carry out this study, an online questionnaire was prepared and conducted in Iraqi Kurdistan, and a total of 516 social media users were sampled. This study deployed a content analysis method for data analysis. Correspondingly, data were analyzed using SPSS software.
Results:
Participants reported that social media has a significant impact on spreading fear and panic related to the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan, with a potential negative influence on people's mental health and psychological well-being. Facebook was the most used social media network for spreading panic about the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraq. We found a significant positive statistical correlation between self-reported social media use and the spread of panic related to COVID-19 (R=.8701). Our results showed that the majority of youths aged 18-35 years are facing psychological anxiety.
Conclusions:
During lockdown, people are using social media platforms to gain information about COVID-19. The nature of the impact of social media panic among people varies depending on an individual's gender, age, and level of education. Social media has played a key role in spreading anxiety about the COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan.
How Right-Leaning Media Coverage of COVID-19 Facilitated the Spread of Misinformation in the Early Stages of the Pandemic in the U.S. - Matt Motta, Dominik Stecula, Christina Farhart
Background
The pandemic of COVID-19 is growing, and a shortage of masks and respirators has been reported globally. Policies of health organizations for healthcare workers are inconsistent, with a change in policy in the US for universal face mask use. The aim of this study was to review the evidence around the efficacy of masks and respirators for healthcare workers, sick patients and the general public.
Methods
A systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials on use of respiratory protection by healthcare workers, sick patients and community members was conducted. Articles were searched on Medline and Embase using key search terms.
Results
A total of 19 randomised controlled trials were included in this study – 8 in community settings, 6 in healthcare settings and 5 as source control. Most of these randomised controlled trials used different interventions and outcome measures. In the community, masks appeared to be more effective than hand hygiene alone, and both together are more protective. Randomised controlled trials in health care workers showed that respirators, if worn continually during a shift, were effective but not if worn intermittently. Medical masks were not effective, and cloth masks even less effective. When used by sick patients randomised controlled trials suggested protection of well contacts.
Conclusion
The study suggests that community mask use by well people could be beneficial, particularly for COVID-19, where transmission may be pre-symptomatic. The studies of masks as source control also suggest a benefit, and may be important during the COVID-19 pandemic in universal community face mask use as well as in health care settings. Trials in healthcare workers support the use of respirators continuously during a shift. This may prevent health worker infections and deaths from COVID-19, as aerosolisation in the hospital setting has been documented.
As conspiracy theories about COVID-19 take root in the United States, understanding the psychological foundations of conspiracy beliefs is increasingly critical. Our research shows that beliefs in two popular variants of COVID-19 conspiracy theory are the joint product of the psychological predispositions 1) to reject information coming from experts and other authority figures and 2) to view major events as the
product of conspiracies, as well as partisan and ideological motivations. The psychological foundations of conspiracy beliefs have implications for the development of strategies designed to curtail their negative
consequences.
Believing in specific conspiracy theories (i.e., explanations for events based on powerholders’ secret arrangements) as well as the general tendency to believe in conspiracy theories—a so-called conspiracy mentality—predicts cognition and behavior with negative societal effects, such as low institutional trust and less societal engagement. During COVID-19, conspiracy theories have gained substantial support. Accordingly, believing in a conspiracy theory around COVID-19 should work against institutional trust, support of governmental regulations and their adoption, as well as societal engagement (e.g., helping members of risk groups). We tested these predictions in a quasi-representative survey, an experimental study, and a longitudinal study (total N = 1,213; all studies pre-registered). Indeed, believing in and being confronted with a corona conspiracy decreased institutional trust, support of governmental regulations, adoption of physical distancing, and (to some extend also) social engagement. Findings underscore that conspiracy theories have severe societal effects in the context of COVID-19.
Background
The recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is taking a toll on the world’s health care infrastructure as well as the social, economic, and psychological well-being of humanity. Individuals, organizations, and governments are using social media to communicate with each other on a number of issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not much is known about the topics being shared on social media platforms relating to COVID-19. Analyzing such information can help policy makers and health care organizations assess the needs of their stakeholders and address them appropriately.
Objective
This study aims to identify the main topics posted by Twitter users related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
Leveraging a set of tools (Twitter’s search application programming interface (API), Tweepy Python library, and PostgreSQL database) and using a set of predefined search terms (“corona,” “2019-nCov,” and “COVID-19”), we extracted the text and metadata (number of likes and retweets, and user profile information including the number of followers) of public English language tweets from February 2, 2020, to March 15, 2020. We analyzed the collected tweets using word frequencies of single (unigrams) and double words (bigrams). We leveraged latent Dirichlet allocation for topic modeling to identify topics discussed in the tweets. We also performed sentiment analysis and extracted the mean number of retweets, likes, and followers for each topic and calculated the interaction rate per topic.
Results
Out of approximately 2.8 million tweets included, 167,073 unique tweets from 160,829 unique users met the inclusion criteria. Our analysis identified 12 topics, which were grouped into four main themes: origin of the virus; its sources; its impact on people, countries, and the economy; and ways of mitigating the risk of infection. The mean sentiment was positive for 10 topics and negative for 2 topics (deaths caused by COVID-19 and increased racism). The mean for tweet topics of account followers ranged from 2722 (increased racism) to 13,413 (economic losses). The highest mean of likes for the tweets was 15.4 (economic loss), while the lowest was 3.94 (travel bans and warnings).
Conclusions
Public health crisis response activities on the ground and online are becoming increasingly simultaneous and intertwined. Social media provides an opportunity to directly communicate health information to the public. Health systems should work on building national and international disease detection and surveillance systems through monitoring social media. There is also a need for a more proactive and agile public health presence on social media to combat the spread of fake news.
Scholarly efforts to understand conspiracy theories have grown significantly in recent years, and there is now a broad and interdisciplinary literature. In reviewing this body of work, we ask three specific questions. First, what factors are associated with conspiracy beliefs? Our review of the literature shows that conspiracy beliefs result from a range of psychological, political, and social factors. Next, how are conspiracy theories communicated? Here, we explain how conspiracy theories are shared among individuals and spread through traditional and social media platforms. Next, what are the societal risks and rewards associated with conspiracy theories? By focusing on politics and science, we argue that conspiracy theories do more harm than good. We conclude by suggesting several promising avenues for future research.
A century after the world’s worst flu epidemic, rapid spread of misinformation is undermining trust in vaccines crucial to public health, warns Heidi Larson. A century after the world’s worst flu epidemic, rapid spread of misinformation is undermining trust in vaccines crucial to public health, warns Heidi Larson.
Background:
Together with access, acceptance of vaccines affects human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage, yet little is known about media's role. Our aim was to determine whether measures of information exposure derived from Twitter could be used to explain differences in coverage in the United States.
Methods:
We conducted an analysis of exposure to information about HPV vaccines on Twitter, derived from 273.8 million exposures to 258,418 tweets posted between 1 October 2013 and 30 October 2015. Tweets were classified by topic using machine learning methods. Proportional exposure to each topic was used to construct multivariable models for predicting state-level HPV vaccine coverage, and compared to multivariable models constructed using socioeconomic factors: poverty, education, and insurance. Outcome measures included correlations between coverage and the individual topics and socioeconomic factors; and differences in the predictive performance of the multivariable models.
Results:
Topics corresponding to media controversies were most closely correlated with coverage (both positively and negatively); education and insurance were highest among socioeconomic indicators. Measures of information exposure explained 68% of the variance in one dose 2015 HPV vaccine coverage in females (males: 63%). In comparison, models based on socioeconomic factors explained 42% of the variance in females (males: 40%).
Conclusions:
Measures of information exposure derived from Twitter explained differences in coverage that were not explained by socioeconomic factors. Vaccine coverage was lower in states where safety concerns, misinformation, and conspiracies made up higher proportions of exposures, suggesting that negative representations of vaccines in the media may reflect or influence vaccine acceptance.
Among American Conservatives, but not Liberals, trust in science has been declining since the 1970's. Climate science has become particularly polarized, with Conservatives being more likely than Liberals to reject the notion that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the globe. Conversely, opposition to genetically-modified (GM) foods and vaccinations is often ascribed to the political Left although reliable data are lacking. There are also growing indications that rejection of science is suffused by conspiracist ideation, that is the general tendency to endorse conspiracy theories including the specific beliefs that inconvenient scientific findings constitute a "hoax."
We conducted a propensity weighted internet-panel survey of the U.S. population and show that conservatism and free-market worldview strongly predict rejection of climate science, in contrast to their weaker and opposing effects on acceptance of vaccinations. The two worldview variables do not predict opposition to GM. Conspiracist ideation, by contrast, predicts rejection of all three scientific propositions, albeit to greatly varying extents. Greater endorsement of a diverse set of conspiracy theories predicts opposition to GM foods, vaccinations, and climate science.
Free-market worldviews are an important predictor of the rejection of scientific findings that have potential regulatory implications, such as climate science, but not necessarily of other scientific issues. Conspiracist ideation, by contrast, is associated with the rejection of all scientific propositions tested. We highlight the manifold cognitive reasons why conspiracist ideation would stand in opposition to the scientific method. The involvement of conspiracist ideation in the rejection of science has implications for science communicators.
Conspiracy theories explain complex world events with reference to secret plots hatched by powerful groups. Belief in such theories is largely determined by a general propensity toward conspirational thinking. Such a conspiracy mentality can be understood as a generalized political attitude, distinct from established generalized political attitudes like right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) (Study 1a, N = 497) that is temporally relatively stable (Study 1b & 1c, total N = 196). Three further studies (combined N = 854) show that in contrast to RWA and SDO, conspiracy mentality is related to prejudice against high-power groups that are perceived as less likeable and more threatening than low-power groups, whereas SDO and RWA are associated with an opposite reaction to perceptions of power. Study 5 (N = 1,852) investigates the relationship of conspiracy mentality with political behavioral intentions in a specific catastrophic scenario (i.e., the damage to the Fukushima nuclear reactor after the 2011 tsunami in Japan) revealing a hitherto neglected role of conspiracy mentality in motivating social action aimed at changing the status quo.
Conspiracy theories can form a monological belief system: A self-sustaining worldview comprised of a network of mutually supportive beliefs. The present research shows that even mutually incompatible conspiracy theories are positively correlated in endorsement. In Study 1 (n = 137), the more participants believed that Princess Diana faked her own death, the more they believed that she was murdered. In Study 2 (n = 102), the more participants believed that Osama Bin Laden was already dead when U.S. special forces raided his compound in Pakistan, the more they believed he is still alive. Hierarchical regression models showed that mutually incompatible conspiracy theories are positively associated because both are associated with the view that the authorities are engaged in a cover-up (Study 2). The monological nature of conspiracy belief appears to be driven not by conspiracy theories directly supporting one another but by broader beliefs supporting conspiracy theories in general.
Background
Health literacy is expected to help individuals deal with the required infection control and knowledge to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objectives
This study examined the impact of health literacy on Covid-19 awareness and protective behaviours of university students in Pakistan.
Methods
An online questionnaire was used to collect data from students at three universities in Punjab. The approved questionnaire contained 12 statements related to HL, 21 items towards Covid-19 awareness, and 11 statements related to protective behaviours, along with some demographic data. Data analysis used Pearson correlation and simple linear regression.
Results
Health literacy of university students positively predicted their Covid-19 awareness and protective behaviours indicating that students with high health literacy were likely to be more aware of Covid-19 and adopt health protective behaviours. There were gender and rural/urban differences.
Conclusions
The results demonstrated an urgent need for planning a needs-based health literacy programme focusing specifically on Covid-19 literacy in Pakistan. This research might help policy-makers, NGOs, and health librarians devise suitable programme.
This online survey took place on March 7, 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. Participants (n = 698) completed an online survey in which they were asked to reflect on their mediated and interpersonal information consumption, in addition to reporting on risk perceptions, general efficacy perceptions, and preventative behaviors specific to COVID-19 in the past seven days. Participant age and chronic condition status were controlled for in all analyses. Time spent consuming news, social media, and health website information was not related to risk perceptions. Time spent on health websites predicted time spent having interpersonal conversations about COVID-19, as well as general efficacy levels. Following the Extended Parallel Process Model, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, and general perceived efficacy predicted preventative behaviors. The vast majority of participants did report taking preventative action against COVID-19, most commonly in the form of hand washing, with many enacting stronger preventative behaviors that had yet to be recommended for the general population. Overall, mediated and interpersonal information exposure had minimal effects on perceived risk and perceived general efficacy, which in turn predicted 27.5% of the variance in preventative behavior. Efficacy was the most powerful among these predictors, and health websites, specifically governmental websites, appeared to be underutilized resources with the potential to promote efficacy during outbreaks. Further research is needed to understand causation in these relationships and to assist in successful message transmission.
Background Conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19 are wide-spread and have even been propagated by highly ranked state officials and politicians in the U.S. Health authorities have cautioned that such theories, although not questioning the existence of the pandemic, may increase the spread of the virus by reducing people’s efforts to socially distance. Methods We test this proposition empirically using longitudinal survey data collected at five time points during the early outbreak of the virus in the U.S. (N = 403). ResultsMultivariate growth curve analyses showed that, although conspiracy beliefs decreased and social distancing increased over time, people holding more conspiracy beliefs at the beginning of the pandemic showed the lowest increase in social distancing. Moreover, cross-lagged analyses demonstrated that people who reported more conspiracy beliefs at any wave tended to report less social distancing at the following wave. Conclusions
Our findings show that COVID-19 conspiracy theories pose a significant threat to public health as they may reduce adherence to social distancing measures.Keywords Conspiracy theories, COVID-19, social distancing, longitudinal
The December, 2019 coronavirus disease outbreak has seen many countries ask people who have potentially come into contact with the infection to isolate themselves at home or in a dedicated quarantine facility. Decisions on how to apply quarantine should be based on the best available evidence. We did a Review of the psychological impact of quarantine using three electronic databases. Of 3166 papers found, 24 are included in this Review. Most reviewed studies reported negative psychological effects including post-traumatic stress symptoms, confusion, and anger. Stressors included longer quarantine duration, infection fears, frustration, boredom, inadequate supplies, inadequate information, financial loss, and stigma. Some researchers have suggested long-lasting effects. In situations where quarantine is deemed necessary, officials should quarantine individuals for no longer than required, provide clear rationale for quarantine and information about protocols, and ensure sufficient supplies are provided. Appeals to altruism by reminding the public about the benefits of quarantine to wider society can be favourable.
An unprecedented outbreak of pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan City, Hubei province in China emerged in December of 2019. A novel coronavirus was identified as the causative agent and was subsequently termed COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Considered a relative of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), COVID-19 is a betacoronavirus that affects the lower respiratory tract and manifests as pneumonia in humans. Despite rigorous global containment and quarantine efforts, the incidence of COVID-19 continues to rise, with 50,580 laboratory-confirmed cases and 1,526 deaths worldwide. In response to this global outbreak, we summarise the current state of knowledge surrounding COVID-19.
Rapidly sharing scientific information is an effective way to reduce public panic about COVID-19, and doing so is the key to providing real-time guidance to epidemiologists working to contain the outbreak, clinicians managing patients, and modelers helping to understand future developments and the possible effectiveness of various interventions. This issue has rapidly reviewed and published articles describing COVID-19, including the drug treatment options for SARS-CoV-2, its clinical characteristics, and therapies involving a combination of Chinese and Western medicine, the efficacy of chloroquine phosphate in the treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia according to clinical studies, and reflections on the system of reserve medical supplies for public health emergencies. As an academic journal, we will continue to quickly and transparently share data with frontline healthcare workers who need to know the epidemiological and clinical features of COVID-19.
Fact check: Trump compares coronavirus to the flu, but it could be 10 times deadlier
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Information Overload and Infodemic in the COVID-19Pandemic
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Vaccine rejection and hesitancy: a review and call to action
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COVID-19outbreak: current scenario of Pakistan
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Development and initial validation of the COVID-19 anxiety scale
Fact check: trump compares coronavirus to the flu, but it could be 10 times deadlier”, Coronavirus live update
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A look at the Americans who believe there is some truth to the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was planned
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