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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Tipología y patrones de los bulos difundidos durante la pandemia de la covid-19 sobre salud y nutrición

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description

This study aims to identify the typology and patterns of hoaxes related to health and nutrition disseminated during the first stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-November 2020). To do this, an exploratory quantitative study was carried out with two data types. The first data comes from studying 95 documents (scientific articles) found in the SCOPUS database through Boolean searches with the terms (dis)misinformation, hoax, health, and nutrition. A registration form was used for these documents, indicating the following items: a) topic of the article (health or nutrition); b) the type of wrong message (misinformation or hoax); c) the country in which the study was done; d) the type of participants (general public, young people, the elderly, health professionals, university students); and e) the type of informational channel studied (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, printed newspapers, digital newspapers, web platforms, television, among others). Conversely, 95 ingredients or foods were selected that were disseminated as hoaxes in Spanish, via WhatsApp, during the first month of confinement (March-April, 2020). A form was used to evaluate the content of the hoaxes, identifying: a) the type of ingredient or food (fruit, vegetable, legume, nut, herb, among others); and b) the sources of information the hoaxes cited (health authorities, the general public, medical organisations, among others). Ultimately, the results of both quantitative studies concluded that the international pattern to spread hoaxes was mainly about health in general, and the (dis)misinformation concerning nutrition was a minority and in 91% of cases was related to the intake of fruits and vegetables, claiming they could prevent or cure COVID-19, without any scientific evidence.