ArticleBMC public health2023
Buffering against exposure to mental health misinformation in online communities on Facebook: the interplay of depression literacy and expert moderation.
Article in BMC public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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12 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Critical Test of the Beneficial Consequences of Lifting the Ban on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising for Prescription Drugs in Italy: Experimental Exposure and Questionnaire Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- Exploring Conversational Dynamics in Scientific and Pseudoscientific Health Communities on YouTube: Process Mining and Network Analysis Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Susceptibility to Health Misinformation and Vaccine Hesitancy in Poland.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Pathways and Roadblocks in Navigating Online Cancer Communities: Qualitative Study Among Young Adult Cancer Survivors.JMIR cancer · 2026Article
- Mental Health Crisis Among Married Women in Bangladesh: Risk Factors and the Role of Misdiagnosis.Depression and anxiety · 2026Article
- Exposure to fake news on social media, coping mechanisms, and mental health impact among Vietnamese adolescents and young adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Developing an Evaluation System for Quality of Health Educational Short Videos on Social Media (LassVQ) Using Nominal Group Technique and Analytic Hierarchy Process: Qualitative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Social Media as an Emotional Barometer: Bidirectional Encoder Representations From Transformers-Long Short-Term Memory Sentiment Analysis on the Evolution of Public Sentiments During Influenza A on Sina Weibo.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Supporters and Skeptics: LLM-based Analysis of Engagement with Mental Health (Mis)Information Content on Video-sharing Platforms.Proceedings of the ... International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media · 2025Article
- Public perceptions and emotional trends of psychotherapy: a 15-year analysis across English and Spanish language communities on X (twitter).Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Mental health literacy in nursing students: Insights from a cross-sectional analysis.PloS one · 2025Article
- The "Loci" of Misinformation and Its Correction in Peer- and Expert-Led Online Communities for Mental Health: Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe proliferation of health misinformation on social media is a growing public health concern. Online communities for mental health (OCMHs) are also considered an outlet for exposure to misinformation. This study explored the impact of the self-reported volume of exposure to mental health misinformation in misinformation agreement and the moderating effects of depression literacy and type of OCMHs participation (expert vs. peer-led).
methodsParticipants (n = 403) were recruited in Italian-speaking OCMHs on Facebook. We conducted regression analyses using PROCESS macro (moderated moderation, Model 3). Measures included: the Depression Literacy Questionnaire (Griffiths et al., 2004), the self-reported misinformation exposure in the OCMHs (3 items), and misinformation agreement with the exposure items (3 items). Whether participants were members of expert or peer-led OCMHs was also investigated.
resultsThe final model explained the 12% variance in the agreement. There was a positive and significant relationship between misinformation exposure and misinformation agreement (β = 0.3221, p < .001), a significant two-way interaction between misinformation exposure and depression literacy (β = - 0.2179, p = .0014 ), and between self-reported misinformation exposure and type of OCMH (β = - 0.2322, p = .0254), such that at higher levels of depression literacy and in case of participation to expert-led OCMHs, the relationship misinformation exposure-misinformation agreement was weaker. Finally, a three-way interaction was found (β = 0.2497, p = .0144) that showed that depression literacy moderated the positive relationship between misinformation exposure and misinformation agreement such that the more misinformation participants were exposed to, the more they agreed with it unless they had higher levels of depression literacy; this, however, occurred only if they participated in peer-led groups.
conclusionsResults provide evidence that the more members reported being exposed to mental health misinformation, the more they tended to agree with it, however this was only visible when participants had lower depression literacy and were participating in peer-led OCMHs. Results of this study suggest that both internal factors (i.e., high depression literacy) and external factors (the type of online community individuals were participating in) can buffer the negative effects of misinformation exposure. It also suggests that increasing depression literacy and expert community moderation could curb the negative consequences of misinformation exposure related to mental health. Results will guide interventions to mitigate the effects of misinformation in OCMHs, including encouraging health professionals in their administration and implementing health education programs.
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