Interventions to mitigate COVID-19 misinformation
Citation: Janmohamed K, Walter N, Nyhan K, et al. Interventions to Mitigate COVID-19 Misinformation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Health Communication. 2021;26(12):846-857.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: No.
Funding sources: The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (USA).
What is this? In this systematic review and meta-analysis, the authors searched for intervention studies that aimed to mitigate COVID-19 misinformation. They restricted their searches to articles published in English between January 2020 and September 2021. They included 12 studies.
What was found: Mitigation may have reduced the influence of misinformation, but results were not statistically significant. There was no significant statistical difference between simple rebuttals of misinformation and factual elaborations. Interventions tailored to specific demographics or populations may be more effective than general interventions.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that more research is required to develop successful interventions to minimise COVID-19 misinformation.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of race and sex.
This summary was prepared by Golo Henning, checked by Sydney Johnson, and finalized by William Summerskill.