ArticleJMIR public health and surveillance2020
Assessment of Health Information About COVID-19 Prevention on the Internet: Infodemiological Study.
Article in JMIR public health and surveillance, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 239 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quality of web-based information about the coronavirus disease 2019: a rapid systematic review of infodemiology studies published during the first year of the pandemic.BMC public health · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Characteristics of the Measurement Tools for Assessing Health Information-Seeking Behaviors in Nationally Representative Surveys: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Adoption of Digital Technologies in Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review of Early Scientific Literature.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Threat, Coping, and Social Distance Adherence During COVID-19: Cross-Continental Comparison Using an Online Cross-Sectional Survey.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Trial
- Considering the impact of vaccine communication in the COVID-19 pandemic among adults in Canada: A qualitative study of lessons learned for future vaccine campaigns.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- Article
- Developing and Validating a User-Friendly Quality Benchmark: Enhancing the Integrity of Online Health Information for Patients and Clinicians.Journal of patient experience · 2025Article
- Differences in Fear and Negativity Levels Between Formal and Informal Health-Related Websites: Analysis of Sentiments and Emotions.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- When Patients Go to "Dr. Google" Before They Go to the Emergency Department.AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2024Observational
- Association of COVID-19 information media, providers, and content with vaccine uptake among Tokyo residents.Vaccine: X · 2023Article
- Article
- Parental COVID-19-related health information practises, sources, evaluations and needs: A qualitative interview study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2023Article
- Infodemic in Public health a reemerging public health threat: a scoping review.F1000Research · 2023Article
- Use of preventive measures, beliefs and information received about COVID-19 and their effects on mental health, in two stages of the pandemic in Colombia.Annals of medicine · 2022Observational
- Reinterpretation of Health Information in the Context of an Emerging Infectious Disease: A Digital Focus Group Study.JMIR human factors · 2022Article
- A Study of Pandemic Prevention Health Behavior in Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Compliance with the main preventive measures of COVID-19 in Spain: The role of knowledge, attitudes, practices, and risk perception.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2022Article
- The Effects of Receiving and Expressing Health Information on Social Media during the COVID-19 Infodemic: An Online Survey among Malaysians.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Online information analysis on pancreatic cancer in Korea using structural topic model.Scientific reports · 2022Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe internet is a large source of health information and has the capacity to influence its users. However, the information found on the internet often lacks scientific rigor, as anyone may upload content. This factor is a cause of great concern to scientific societies, governments, and users.
objectiveThe objective of our study was to investigate the information about the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the internet.
methodsOn February 29, 2020, we performed a Google search with the terms "Prevention coronavirus," "Prevention COVID-19," "Prevención coronavirus," and "Prevención COVID-19". A univariate analysis was performed to study the association between the type of authorship, country of publication, and recommendations to avoid COVID-19 according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
resultsIn total, 80 weblinks were reviewed. Most of them were produced in the United States and Spain (n=58, 73%) by digital media sources and official public health organizations (n=60, 75%). The most mentioned WHO preventive measure was "wash your hands frequently" (n=65, 81%). A less frequent recommendation was to "stay home if you feel unwell" (n=26, 33%). The analysis by type of author (official public health organizations versus digital media) revealed significant differences regarding the recommendation to wear a mask when you are healthy only if caring for a person with suspected COVID-19 (odds ratio [OR] 4.39). According to the country of publication (Spain versus the United States), significant differences were detected regarding some recommendations such as "wash your hands frequently" (OR 9.82), "cover your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze" (OR 4.59), or "stay home if you feel unwell" (OR 0.31).
conclusionsIt is necessary to urge and promote the use of the websites of official public health organizations when seeking information on COVID-19 preventive measures on the internet. In this way, users will be able to obtain high-quality information more frequently, and such websites may improve their accessibility and positioning, given that search engines justify the positioning of links obtained in a search based on the frequency of access to them.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.