Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: May 29, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 14, 2025
Development of a conceptual framework of health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review of reviews
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite the wide variety of studies that have focused on the recent COVID-19 infodemic, defining health mis/disinformation remains a challenge due to the dynamic nature of the social media ecosystem and, in particular, the different terminologies from different fields of knowledge.
Objective:
In this work, we aim to develop a conceptual framework of health misinformation during pandemic contexts that will enable the establishment of an interoperable definition of this concept and consequently a better management of these problems in the future.
Methods:
We conducted a scoping review of reviews to develop a conceptual framework for health misinformation during the pandemic context.
Results:
This review comprises 51 reviews from which we identified and characterized the sources (human vs artificial), drivers, contents, (mis)information channels, audiences, and specific effects of mis/disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusions:
Our results highlight the complexity and multifaceted nature of health disinformation and underscore the need for a common language across disciplines addressing this global problem in order to employ interoperable definitions and advance this evolving field of study.
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Copyright
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