Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36679959›Full record

ArticleVaccines2023

How Does Digital Media Search for COVID-19 Influence Vaccine Hesitancy? Exploring the Trade-off between Google Trends, Infodemics, Conspiracy Beliefs and Religious Fatalism.

Jiayue Gao, Syed Hassan Raza, Muhammad Yousaf, Amjad Ali Shah, Iltaf Hussain, Aqdas Malik

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Vaccines, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
9citing papers in PubMed
8.1field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
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

9 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

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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

6 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.

Jiayue GaoThe Bartlett, UCL Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Syed Hassan RazaInstitute of Media and Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 66000, Pakistan.ORCID 0000-0002-1318-7818
Muhammad YousafCentre for Media and Communication Studies, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan.ORCID 0000-0003-3203-2966
Amjad Ali ShahInstitute of Media and Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 66000, Pakistan.ORCID 0000-0001-6449-1476
Iltaf HussainDepartment of Medicine, Health Science Centre, Xi'an Jiaotong University China, Xi'an, 710000, China.ORCID 0000-0003-0556-0181
Aqdas MalikDepartment of Information Systems, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat 112, Oman.ORCID 0000-0002-3517-8760
Bahauddin Zakariya University · PKSultan Qaboos University · OMUniversity College London · GBUniversity of Gujrat · PKXi'an Jiaotong University · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Digital media has remained problematic during COVID-19 because it has been the source of false and unverified facts. This was particularly evident in the widespread misinformation and confusion regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Past research suggested infodemics, conspiracy beliefs, and religious fatalism as potential threats to public COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. However, the literature is primarily void of empirical evidence associating demographic attributes with efforts to build vaccine hesitancy. Therefore, this research uses two studies: (Study 1) Google Trends and (Study 2) survey method to provide inclusive empirical insight into public use of digital media during COVID-19 and the detrimental effects of infodemics, conspiracy beliefs, and religious fatalism as they were related to building COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Using Google Trends based on popular keywords the public searched over one year, Study 1 explores public digital media use during COVID-19. Drawing on this exploration, Study 2 used a cross-sectional national representative survey of 2120 adult Pakistanis to describe the influence of potential hazards such as infodemics on public vaccine hesitancy. Study 2 revealed that infodemics, conspiracy beliefs, and religious fatalism predict vaccine hesitancy. In addition, gender moderates the relationship between infodemics and conspiracy beliefs and vaccine hesitancy. This implies that there is a dispositional effect of the infodemics and conspiracy beliefs spread digitally. This study's findings benefit health and other concerned authorities to help them reduce religious fatalism, vaccine hesitancy, and conspiracy theories with targeted communication campaigns on digital media.

Indexed as

conspiracy beliefCOVID-19digital mediagoogle trendsinfodemicsPakistanreligious fatalismvaccine hesitancy

Identifiers

PMID36679959
PMCPMC9860569
OpenAlexW4313586749

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.