ArticleScientific reports2025
Assessing the impact of misinformation during the spread of infectious diseases.
Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Digital health literacy and its behavioral correlates among medical undergraduates in central China: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Susceptibility to digital health misinformation: a multi-level narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In today's digital era, the internet offers unprecedented access to information, but it also accelerates the spread of misinformation. Nowhere is this more problematic than in public health, as the COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrated. Misinformation can erode trust in science and health authorities, leading people to disregard expert guidance and adopt unverified treatments that endanger population health. We examine how misinformation alters the course of an infectious disease outbreak by modeling the simultaneous uptake of preventive measures and engagement in harmful behaviors. The model captures the competing influences of accurate information and misinformation on individual decision making. Our results show that even a modest influx of misinformation can greatly amplify disease transmission, deepening the epidemic's severity. These findings highlight the urgent need for robust strategies to curb misinformation and support public health interventions during health crises.
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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.