JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The proliferation of misleading health information presents a significant challenge to public health.

Objective:

To analyze the measurement properties of a comprehensive instrument regarding resilience to misinformation, allowing for the quantification and characterization of resilience to misinformation in social media.

Methods:

Through a multi-step development procedure, items for the new questionnaire were generated, involving item selection and formulation, addressing scoring issues, and conducting pilot and field testing. Subsequently, the psychometric properties were evaluated with 511 Portuguese adults, parents of school-age children, (82.6% women), with a mean (standard deviation) age of 41.2 (6.1) years old. The data were randomly divided into two subsets. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed with the first subset, followed by a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with the second. The reliability of the 15-item scale was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients.

Results:

A two-factor model was obtained and tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The two factors identified, stress resistance/resilience to misinformation (5 items) and self-control about misinformation (9 items), exhibited good internal consistency (α = 0.73; ω = 0.69).

Conclusions:

Our findings indicate that there is a valid and reliable questionnaire about resilience to misinformation on social media. The questionnaire seems well-suited for application in both public health and research environments, allowing the identification of how individuals navigate and address the challenges posed by health (mis)information in online environments.