Institut for Kommunikation og Kultur

TY - JOUR

T1 - A Public Health Research Agenda for Managing Infodemics

T2 - Methods and Results of the First WHO Infodemiology Conference

AU - Calleja, Neville

AU - AbdAllah, AbdelHalim

AU - Abad, Neetu

AU - Ahmed, Naglaa

AU - Albarracin, Dolores

AU - Altieri, Elena

AU - Anoko, Julienne N

AU - Arcos, Ruben

AU - Azlan, Arina Anis

AU - Bayer, Judit

AU - Bechmann, Anja

AU - Bezbaruah, Supriya

AU - Briand, Sylvie C

AU - Brooks, Ian

AU - Bucci, Lucie M

AU - Burzo, Stefano

AU - Czerniak, Christine

AU - De Domenico, Manlio

AU - Dunn, Adam G

AU - Ecker, Ullrich K H

AU - Espinosa, Laura

AU - Francois, Camille

AU - Gradon, Kacper

AU - Gruzd, Anatoliy

AU - Gülgün, Beste Sultan

AU - Haydarov, Rustam

AU - Hurley, Cherstyn

AU - Astuti, Santi Indra

AU - Ishizumi, Atsuyoshi

AU - Johnson, Neil

AU - Johnson Restrepo, Dylan

AU - Kajimoto, Masato

AU - Koyuncu, Aybüke

AU - Kulkarni, Shibani

AU - Lamichhane, Jaya

AU - Lewis, Rosamund

AU - Mahajan, Avichal

AU - Mandil, Ahmed

AU - McAweeney, Erin

AU - Messer, Melanie

AU - Moy, Wesley

AU - Ndumbi Ngamala, Patricia

AU - Nguyen, Tim

AU - Nunn, Mark

AU - Omer, Saad B

AU - Pagliari, Claudia

AU - Patel, Palak

AU - Phuong, Lynette

AU - Prybylski, Dimitri

AU - Rashidian, Arash

AU - Rempel, Emily

AU - Rubinelli, Sara

AU - Sacco, PierLuigi

AU - Schneider, Anton

AU - Shu, Kai

AU - Smith, Melanie

AU - Sufehmi, Harry

AU - Tangcharoensathien, Viroj

AU - Terry, Robert

AU - Thacker, Naveen

AU - Trewinnard, Tom

AU - Turner, Shannon

AU - Tworek, Heidi

AU - Uakkas, Saad

AU - Vraga, Emily

AU - Wardle, Claire

AU - Wasserman, Herman

AU - Wilhelm, Elisabeth

AU - Würz, Andrea

AU - Yau, Brian

AU - Zhou, Lei

AU - Purnat, Tina D

N1 - ©Neville Calleja, AbdelHalim AbdAllah, Neetu Abad, Naglaa Ahmed, Dolores Albarracin, Elena Altieri, Julienne N Anoko, Ruben Arcos, Arina Anis Azlan, Judit Bayer, Anja Bechmann, Supriya Bezbaruah, Sylvie C Briand, Ian Brooks, Lucie M Bucci, Stefano Burzo, Christine Czerniak, Manlio De Domenico, Adam G Dunn, Ullrich K H Ecker, Laura Espinosa, Camille Francois, Kacper Gradon, Anatoliy Gruzd, Beste Sultan Gülgün, Rustam Haydarov, Cherstyn Hurley, Santi Indra Astuti, Atsuyoshi Ishizumi, Neil Johnson, Dylan Johnson Restrepo, Masato Kajimoto, Aybüke Koyuncu, Shibani Kulkarni, Jaya Lamichhane, Rosamund Lewis, Avichal Mahajan, Ahmed Mandil, Erin McAweeney, Melanie Messer, Wesley Moy, Patricia Ndumbi Ngamala, Tim Nguyen, Mark Nunn, Saad B Omer, Claudia Pagliari, Palak Patel, Lynette Phuong, Dimitri Prybylski, Arash Rashidian, Emily Rempel, Sara Rubinelli, PierLuigi Sacco, Anton Schneider, Kai Shu, Melanie Smith, Harry Sufehmi, Viroj Tangcharoensathien, Robert Terry, Naveen Thacker, Tom Trewinnard, Shannon Turner, Heidi Tworek, Saad Uakkas, Emily Vraga, Claire Wardle, Herman Wasserman, Elisabeth Wilhelm, Andrea Würz, Brian Yau, Lei Zhou, Tina D Purnat. Originally published in JMIR Infodemiology (https://infodemiology.jmir.org), 15.09.2021.

PY - 2021/9

Y1 - 2021/9

N2 - Background: An infodemic is an overflow of information of varying quality that surges across digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. It leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health and lead to erosion of trust in health authorities and public health responses. Owing to the global scale and high stakes of the health emergency, responding to the infodemic related to the pandemic is particularly urgent. Building on diverse research disciplines and expanding the discipline of infodemiology, more evidence-based interventions are needed to design infodemic management interventions and tools and implement them by health emergency responders.Objective: The World Health Organization organized the first global infodemiology conference, entirely online, during June and July 2020, with a follow-up process from August to October 2020, to review current multidisciplinary evidence, interventions, and practices that can be applied to the COVID-19 infodemic response. This resulted in the creation of a public health research agenda for managing infodemics.Methods: As part of the conference, a structured expert judgment synthesis method was used to formulate a public health research agenda. A total of 110 participants represented diverse scientific disciplines from over 35 countries and global public health implementing partners. The conference used a laddered discussion sprint methodology by rotating participant teams, and a managed follow-up process was used to assemble a research agenda based on the discussion and structured expert feedback. This resulted in a five-workstream frame of the research agenda for infodemic management and 166 suggested research questions. The participants then ranked the questions for feasibility and expected public health impact. The expert consensus was summarized in a public health research agenda that included a list of priority research questions.Results: The public health research agenda for infodemic management has five workstreams: (1) measuring and continuously monitoring the impact of infodemics during health emergencies; (2) detecting signals and understanding the spread and risk of infodemics; (3) responding and deploying interventions that mitigate and protect against infodemics and their harmful effects; (4) evaluating infodemic interventions and strengthening the resilience of individuals and communities to infodemics; and (5) promoting the development, adaptation, and application of interventions and toolkits for infodemic management. Each workstream identifies research questions and highlights 49 high priority research questions.Conclusions: Public health authorities need to develop, validate, implement, and adapt tools and interventions for managing infodemics in acute public health events in ways that are appropriate for their countries and contexts. Infodemiology provides a scientific foundation to make this possible. This research agenda proposes a structured framework for targeted investment for the scientific community, policy makers, implementing organizations, and other stakeholders to consider.

AB - Background: An infodemic is an overflow of information of varying quality that surges across digital and physical environments during an acute public health event. It leads to confusion, risk-taking, and behaviors that can harm health and lead to erosion of trust in health authorities and public health responses. Owing to the global scale and high stakes of the health emergency, responding to the infodemic related to the pandemic is particularly urgent. Building on diverse research disciplines and expanding the discipline of infodemiology, more evidence-based interventions are needed to design infodemic management interventions and tools and implement them by health emergency responders.Objective: The World Health Organization organized the first global infodemiology conference, entirely online, during June and July 2020, with a follow-up process from August to October 2020, to review current multidisciplinary evidence, interventions, and practices that can be applied to the COVID-19 infodemic response. This resulted in the creation of a public health research agenda for managing infodemics.Methods: As part of the conference, a structured expert judgment synthesis method was used to formulate a public health research agenda. A total of 110 participants represented diverse scientific disciplines from over 35 countries and global public health implementing partners. The conference used a laddered discussion sprint methodology by rotating participant teams, and a managed follow-up process was used to assemble a research agenda based on the discussion and structured expert feedback. This resulted in a five-workstream frame of the research agenda for infodemic management and 166 suggested research questions. The participants then ranked the questions for feasibility and expected public health impact. The expert consensus was summarized in a public health research agenda that included a list of priority research questions.Results: The public health research agenda for infodemic management has five workstreams: (1) measuring and continuously monitoring the impact of infodemics during health emergencies; (2) detecting signals and understanding the spread and risk of infodemics; (3) responding and deploying interventions that mitigate and protect against infodemics and their harmful effects; (4) evaluating infodemic interventions and strengthening the resilience of individuals and communities to infodemics; and (5) promoting the development, adaptation, and application of interventions and toolkits for infodemic management. Each workstream identifies research questions and highlights 49 high priority research questions.Conclusions: Public health authorities need to develop, validate, implement, and adapt tools and interventions for managing infodemics in acute public health events in ways that are appropriate for their countries and contexts. Infodemiology provides a scientific foundation to make this possible. This research agenda proposes a structured framework for targeted investment for the scientific community, policy makers, implementing organizations, and other stakeholders to consider.

U2 - 10.2196/30979

DO - 10.2196/30979

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34604708

VL - 1

SP - e30979

JO - JMIR Infodemiology

JF - JMIR Infodemiology

SN - 2564-1891

IS - 1

ER -