Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 5, 2022
Date Accepted: May 31, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jun 21, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Health Misinformation Across Multiple Digital Environments: Qualitative Study of Data from Interviews With International Students
ABSTRACT
Background:
Transient migrants such as international students have received limited support from host-country governments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. An increase in misinformation, resulting in poor health outcomes for individuals, may impact an already vulnerable group.
Objective:
Existing research examines the spread of misinformation. Similarly, there is extensive literature on the health information behavior of international students. However, there is a gap in literature focusing on international students’ interactions with health misinformation. This exploratory research aims to address that gap by examining international students’ interactions with health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
11 participants were recruited to take part, through Zoom, in semi-structured interviews and a health misinformation-identification exercise. The data collected was subjected to qualitative thematic analysis. Multiple rounds of coding, checked by other coders, revealed two themes and six sub-themes.
Results:
Two main themes of approaches to dealing with health misinformation, and how international students navigate across multiple digital ecologies arose. Results show that for international students’ who draw on multiple digital ecologies for information, there may be a protective effect against health misinformation.
Conclusions:
Findings show international students encounter health misinformation across multiple digital ecologies and compare information across multiple ecologies. This comparison may support them in identifying health misinformation. Thus, findings combat narratives of international students’ susceptibility to misinformation.
Citation
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Copyright
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