Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35380546›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2022

The Prevalence and Impact of Fake News on COVID-19 Vaccination in Taiwan: Retrospective Study of Digital Media.

Yen-Pin Chen, Yi-Ying Chen, Kai-Chou Yang, Feipei Lai, Chien-Hua Huang, Yun-Nung Chen, Yi-Chin Tu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Yen-Pin ChenGraduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0002-2473-0847
Yi-Ying ChenDepartment of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0001-8947-2730
Kai-Chou YangTaiwan AI Labs, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0002-9346-0844
Feipei LaiGraduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0001-7147-8122
Chien-Hua Huang *Department of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0003-2981-4537
Yun-Nung Chen *Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0003-1777-3942
Yi-Chin TuTaiwan AI Labs, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0002-8134-4715

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundVaccination is an important intervention to prevent the incidence and spread of serious diseases. Many factors including information obtained from the internet influence individuals' decisions to vaccinate. Misinformation is a critical issue and can be hard to detect, although it can change people's minds, opinions, and decisions. The impact of misinformation on public health and vaccination hesitancy is well documented, but little research has been conducted on the relationship between the size of the population reached by misinformation and the vaccination decisions made by that population. A number of fact-checking services are available on the web, including the Islander news analysis system, a free web service that provides individuals with real-time judgment on web news. In this study, we used such services to estimate the amount of fake news available and used Google Trends levels to model the spread of fake news. We quantified this relationship using official public data on COVID-19 vaccination in Taiwan.

objectiveIn this study, we aimed to quantify the impact of the magnitude of the propagation of fake news on vaccination decisions.

methodsWe collected public data about COVID-19 infections and vaccination from Taiwan's official website and estimated the popularity of searches using Google Trends. We indirectly collected news from 26 digital media sources, using the news database of the Islander system. This system crawls the internet in real time, analyzes the news, and stores it. The incitement and suspicion scores of the Islander system were used to objectively judge news, and a fake news percentage variable was produced. We used multivariable linear regression, chi-square tests, and the Johnson-Neyman procedure to analyze this relationship, using weekly data.

resultsA total of 791,183 news items were obtained over 43 weeks in 2021. There was a significant increase in the proportion of fake news in 11 of the 26 media sources during the public vaccination stage. The regression model revealed a positive adjusted coefficient (β=0.98, P=.002) of vaccine availability on the following week's vaccination doses, and a negative adjusted coefficient (β=-3.21, P=.04) of the interaction term on the fake news percentage with the Google Trends level. The Johnson-Neiman plot of the adjusted effect for the interaction term showed that the Google Trends level had a significant negative adjustment effect on vaccination doses for the following week when the proportion of fake news exceeded 39.3%.

conclusionsThere was a significant relationship between the amount of fake news to which the population was exposed and the number of vaccination doses administered. Reducing the amount of fake news and increasing public immunity to misinformation will be critical to maintain public health in the internet age.

Indexed as

COVID-19Social MediaCOVID-19 VaccinesDisinformationHumansInternetPrevalenceRetrospective StudiesTaiwanVaccinationCOVID-19 VaccinesCOVID-19fake newsinfodemicinfodemiologymisinformationpublic immunitysocial mediavaccinationvaccine hesitancy

Identifiers

PMID35380546
PMCPMC9045486

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.