ArticleJMIR medical education2023
A Web Tool to Help Counter the Spread of Misinformation and Fake News: Pre-Post Study Among Medical Students to Increase Digital Health Literacy.
Article in JMIR medical education, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Seeking But Not Discussing Online Health Information With Physicians: Cross-Sectional Survey Study of eHealth Literacy-Empowerment Profiles and Patient-Centered Communication.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- How the General Public Navigates Health Misinformation on Social Media: Qualitative Study of Identification and Response Approaches.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Article
- Health literacy and COVID-19 pandemic impacts among adults in rural northern Arizona.Rural and remote health · 2024Article
- Implementation of the Digital Health Approach to Support Learning for Health Students Based on Bloom's Taxonomy: A Systematic Review.Healthcare informatics research · 2024Article
- Qualitative research on undergraduate nursing students' recognition and response to short videos' health disinformation.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Exploring the vaccine conversation on TikTok in Italy: beyond classic vaccine stances.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Empowering Third-Year Medical Students to Detect Bias and Medical Misinformation Online via Experiential Learning of "Lateral Reading," A Fact-Checker's Technique.Teaching and learning in medicineArticle
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by the spread of uncontrolled health information and fake news, which also quickly became an infodemic. Emergency communication is a challenge for public health institutions to engage the public during disease outbreaks. Health professionals need a high level of digital health literacy (DHL) to cope with difficulties; therefore, efforts should be made to address this issue starting from undergraduate medical students.
objectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the DHL skills of Italian medical students and the effectiveness of an informatics course offered by the University of Florence (Italy). This course focuses on assessing the quality of medical information using the "dottoremaeveroche" (DMEVC) web resource offered by the Italian National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists, and on health information management.
methodsA pre-post study was conducted at the University of Florence between November and December 2020. First-year medical students participated in a web-based survey before and after attending the informatics course. The DHL level was self-assessed using the eHealth Literacy Scale for Italy (IT-eHEALS) tool and questions about the features and quality of the resources. All responses were rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Change in the perception of skills was assessed using the Wilcoxon test.
resultsA total of 341 students participated in the survey at the beginning of the informatics course (women: n=211, 61.9%; mean age 19.8, SD 2.0) and 217 of them (64.2%) completed the survey at the end of the course. At the first assessment, the DHL level was moderate, with a mean total score of the IT-eHEALS of 2.9 (SD 0.9). Students felt confident about finding health-related information on the internet (mean score of 3.4, SD 1.1), whereas they doubted the usefulness of the information they received (mean score of 2.0, SD 1.0). All scores improved significantly in the second assessment. The overall mean score of the IT-eHEALS significantly increased (P<.001) to 4.2 (SD 0.6). The item with the highest score related to recognizing the quality of health information (mean score of 4.5, SD 0.7), whereas confidence in the practical application of the information received remained the lowest (mean of 3.7, SD 1.1) despite improvement. Almost all students (94.5%) valued the DMEVC as an educational tool.
conclusionsThe DMEVC tool was effective in improving medical students' DHL skills. Effective tools and resources such as the DMEVC website should be used in public health communication to facilitate access to validated evidence and understanding of health recommendations.
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