Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Jun 10, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 10, 2022 - Jun 24, 2022
Date Accepted: Nov 29, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Dec 5, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
The prevalence, features, influencing factors, and solutions of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation: a systematic review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Misinformation led to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy worldwide. We aimed to synthesize the global evidence on misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines, including its prevalence, features, factors affecting its spreading and believing, impacts, and how to combat it.
Objective:
We conducted a systematic review to synthesize the global evidence on misinformation related to COVID-19 vaccines, including its prevalence, features, influencing factors, impacts, and solutions for combating misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines.
Methods:
We performed a systematic review by searching five peer-reviewed databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, and EBSCO) and three preprint databases (medRxiv, Europe PMC, and SSRN). Original empirical articles that investigated misinformation related to COVID-19 vaccine were included. The Appraisal tool for Cross-Sectional Studies, Cochrane RoB 2.0 tool, and Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Checklist was used to assess the quality of all included studies by study design. This review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021288929).
Results:
Of the 2794 studies identified, a total of 52 observational studies and 4 interventional studies met the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation was high but widely various worldwide, from 1.7% to 32.4% in general population and 0.9%-57.8% of social media posts. The most frequent type of misinformation was conspiracy, followed by irrational concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy. African and West Mediterranean regions showed a higher misinformation prevalence than other regions. Information features, information-seeking behaviors, and demographic factors influenced the spreading and believing of misinformation. Five-part response solutions help to debunk the misinformation: identifying misinformation, regulating producers and distributors, cutting production and distribution, supporting the target audiences of disinformation, and disseminating trustworthy information.
Conclusions:
Our review provided comprehensive and up-to-date evidence on COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and contributed to targeted solutions to address vaccine-related misinformation. It helps prepare the responses to the COVID-19 vaccine infodemic and to future infodemic in general. Clinical Trial: NA
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.