ArticleBMC medical education2024
Association between beliefs in medical conspiracy theories and health behaviors among medical and healthcare students. Implications for professional practice.
Article in BMC medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Environmental and planetary health education for healthcare professionals: A social imperative.Future healthcare journal · 2026Article
- Pharmaceutical marketing and patient trust: How do doctor-targeted campaigns affect patients?PloS one · 2026Article
- Predictors of vaccine hesitancy among medical students at the University of Belgrade.BMC medical education · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile conspiracy theories cover many different themes, medical conspiracy theories (MCTs) have become particularly prevalent in modern societies. As beliefs in MCTs can become a source of "infodemics", influence individual health behaviors and cause distrust in medical institutions and personnel, healthcare workers must find ways to overturn patients' conspiracy thinking. However, as the medical world is not free of these beliefs, in this study, we investigated beliefs in MCTs among medical and health science students and their association with reported health behaviors.
methodsOur sample was derived from a self-administered, anonymized, computer-assisted web survey conducted among 1,175 medical and health science students enrolled at the Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland.
resultsFrom a set of twenty different MCTs, one-third of students rejected all of them, 18% believed in one, 15% in two, 10% in three, and 24% supported four or more conspiracy theories. In addition, many students were hesitant or unsure about MCTs. We also found that nursing and midwifery students were the most likely to believe in MCTs, while medical and dental students were the least supportive. Support for MCTs was higher among students in the early years of their studies and who declared themselves religious and conservative. This study also highlights the association between students' support for MCTs and their reported health behaviors, including avoiding vaccinations, using alternative medicine, taking vitamin C, or using social media as an essential source of health information.
conclusionsAs medical and health science students are prone to conspiratorial thinking, they should be trained to act as a trusted and reliable source of medical information, to mitigate conspiratorial beliefs, and to act as role models for their patients and society, effectively shaping health behaviors in the population.
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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.