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Health Misinformation in Schools
Health misinformation is the spread of health-related content that is false, inaccurate, or misleading. While not a new phenomenon, researchers are just beginning to analyze and understand the detrimental impact that the spread of false health information has on youth. Recent findings suggest that 41% of teenagers cannot tell the difference between true and fake health messages online which calls for further focus on strategies to address this issue.
The digital environment has caused the volume and tone of health misinformation across social media platforms to be overwhelming. Misinformation can be easily spread about any health-related topic, including vaccines, drugs/smoking, noncommunicable diseases, pandemics, eating disorders and medical treatments. Exposure to false information can lead to confusion, distrust and rejection of public health measures. Overall, this causes youth to be more ill-informed when making health decisions.
To overcome this, strategies across youth health stakeholder groups can protect youth from exposure to misinformation while also educating them to discern reliable information from unreliable information. Schools can provide reliable health information to the school community and teach students how to think critically about the information they come across. Explore this week’s tools and resources to help your school community combat health misinformation.
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