我们如何弥合公共卫生知识的差距?

在这个媒体饱和和两极分化的时代, 错误的信息可能泛滥，对公众健康产生有害影响. 了解为什么人们相信未经证实的健康信息, 随之而来的后果, 以及如何对抗这种趋势, 趣赢平台副主任TaWanna浆果, MA, 最近主持了一个专家小组讨论Community Collaborations: A Powerful Tool for Identifying and Responding to Misinformation—at the 2023 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media (NCHCMM).

该小组成员包括马修·克罗伊特, 博士学位, 英里每小时, 公共卫生学院教授兼副院长, 布朗学校, 华盛顿大学. 路易; Jessica Otero Machuca, 英里每小时, Certified Health 教育 Specialist and Associate 临床研究 Coordinator, Mayo Clinic; and Lisa Fazio, 博士学位, 心理学与人类发展副教授, 皮博迪教育与人类发展学院, 范德比尔特大学.

在接下来的讨论中, Berry shares the panel’s conversation around communication challenges and solutions during the 新型冠状病毒肺炎 pandemic and innovative tools that can be used to counter the spread of incorrect health information now and in the future.

Q. Is there a difference between spreading incorrect health information and spreading disinformation?

A. 肯定. Often incorrect health information is spread when someone thinks information is true, 但事实上这是不正确的. That wrong information then floats out in the universe where many come to accept it as factual. Disinformation is the explicit sharing of incorrect information to sway people’s beliefs.

Q. What did the panelists say are the immediate and long-term consequences of the spread of incorrect health information?

A. They echoed the fact that the spread of incorrect information can result in serious illness and millions of deaths, 我们在大流行期间看到了什么. 从长远来看, this kind of incorrect information erodes people’s trust in public health institutions and scientific research and can contribute to health disparities.

Q. What was their take on why it seems that we are more susceptible to incorrect health information lately?

A. The panelists agreed that the public is consuming great amounts of content daily without critically processing it. 也, 许多人基于偏见形成观点, 是什么阻碍了他们辨别事实和虚构的能力.

Q. 谁最容易相信不正确的健康信息?

A. All of us are susceptible to believing and/or spreading incorrect information when we are not thinking critically. 令人惊讶的是，我们的一位小组成员在我们的会议上证明了这一点. She offered a fictional question to the audience: “How many animals of each kind did Abraham bring to the ark?” The audience assumed the question was true—that it was Abraham who did this—and answered “2.”

Q. How did the panelists combat the spread of incorrect information in their communities during the pandemic?

A. 其中两名小组成员代表的研究团队是该项目的一部分 National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against 新型冠状病毒肺炎 initiative. 这些研究团队, 由学术机构领导, formed partnerships with community-based 组织 to provide trustworthy and scientific-based information about 新型冠状病毒肺炎 testing and vaccines. They used rapid research approaches to find effective ways to deliver information to communities hardest hit by the pandemic. 许多人发现通过可信的信使——人来传递信息, 组织, and programs that community members trusted—worked to address knowledge gaps and correct incorrect information and beliefs.

Q. What are some innovative ways of getting ahead of the spread of incorrect information?

A. 在流感大流行期间，华盛顿大学推出了一个名为 iHeard圣. 路易 监控整个城市传播的健康信息. It involves a weekly survey sent out to more than 200 paid participants to glean information from the public about their top public health concerns and information they have heard on key health topics. 一旦收到响应, the information is used to create messaging that provides factual and easy-to-digest information for the public on those key topics. 然后团队发展 数字资产, 哪些是每周与合作伙伴和可信的信使组织共享的, 谁又在他们自己的渠道上分享信息.

Q. 这个项目能在全国范围内推广吗?

A. 我们认为可以. 趣赢平台 is working with the NIH and CEAL to pilot test if the process used in the iHeard program can be expanded to other states.

Q. What information hurdles do you foresee health communicators facing in the future?

A. 人工智能(AI)是一个潜在的障碍. 这可能会加剧错误信息的传播, but it could also be helpful in communicating scientific-based information to the public. We will need to determine how best to leverage it to help bring about positive change.