Wilhelm E, Ballalai I, Belanger ME, Benjamin P, Bertrand-Ferrandis C, Bezbaruah S, Briand S, Brooks I, Bruns R, Bucci LM, Calleja N, Chiou H, Devaria A, Dini L, D'Souza H, Dunn AG, Eichstaedt JC, Evers SMAA, Gobat N, Gissler M, Gonzales IC, Gruzd A, Hess S, Ishizumi A, John O, Joshi A, Kaluza B, Khamis N, Kosinska M, Kulkarni S, Lingri D, Ludolph R, Mackey T, Mandić-Rajčević S, Menczer F, Mudaliar V, Murthy S, Nazakat S, Nguyen T, Nilsen J, Pallari E, Pasternak Taschner N, Petelos E, Prinstein MJ, Roozenbeek J, Schneider A, Srinivasan V, Stevanović A, Strahwald B, Syed Abdul S, Varaidzo Machiri S, van der Linden S, Voegeli C, Wardle C, Wegwarth O, White BK, Willie E, Yau B, and Purnat TD
Background: An infodemic is excess information, including false or misleading information, that spreads in digital and physical environments during a public health emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an unprecedented global infodemic that has led to confusion about the benefits of medical and public health interventions, with substantial impact on risk-taking and health-seeking behaviors, eroding trust in health authorities and compromising the effectiveness of public health responses and policies. Standardized measures are needed to quantify the harmful impacts of the infodemic in a systematic and methodologically robust manner, as well as harmonizing highly divergent approaches currently explored for this purpose. This can serve as a foundation for a systematic, evidence-based approach to monitoring, identifying, and mitigating future infodemic harms in emergency preparedness and prevention., Objective: In this paper, we summarize the Fifth World Health Organization (WHO) Infodemic Management Conference structure, proceedings, outcomes, and proposed actions seeking to identify the interdisciplinary approaches and frameworks needed to enable the measurement of the burden of infodemics., Methods: An iterative human-centered design (HCD) approach and concept mapping were used to facilitate focused discussions and allow for the generation of actionable outcomes and recommendations. The discussions included 86 participants representing diverse scientific disciplines and health authorities from 28 countries across all WHO regions, along with observers from civil society and global public health-implementing partners. A thematic map capturing the concepts matching the key contributing factors to the public health burden of infodemics was used throughout the conference to frame and contextualize discussions. Five key areas for immediate action were identified., Results: The 5 key areas for the development of metrics to assess the burden of infodemics and associated interventions included (1) developing standardized definitions and ensuring the adoption thereof; (2) improving the map of concepts influencing the burden of infodemics; (3) conducting a review of evidence, tools, and data sources; (4) setting up a technical working group; and (5) addressing immediate priorities for postpandemic recovery and resilience building. The summary report consolidated group input toward a common vocabulary with standardized terms, concepts, study designs, measures, and tools to estimate the burden of infodemics and the effectiveness of infodemic management interventions., Conclusions: Standardizing measurement is the basis for documenting the burden of infodemics on health systems and population health during emergencies. Investment is needed into the development of practical, affordable, evidence-based, and systematic methods that are legally and ethically balanced for monitoring infodemics; generating diagnostics, infodemic insights, and recommendations; and developing interventions, action-oriented guidance, policies, support options, mechanisms, and tools for infodemic managers and emergency program managers., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: SB, SBr, NG, SH, AI, MK, RL, TN, TDP, and BY are staff of the World Health Organization (WHO); CBF and BKW are consultants with WHO; SK and CV are staff of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC). These authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this paper, and they do not represent the views of their organizations. The conflicts of interest were reviewed and managed as per WHO procedures. AD declared that his university received research support on information diet measurement by WHO for the product owned by WHO. He was not part of the consensus driving during the closing session of the meeting. TM is the current Editor-in-Chief of JMIR Infodemiology and declared ownership interest in a company for work not related to the deliberation in this publication. LMB works for Immunize Canada/the Canadian Public Health Association, which has received educational grants/funding from Merck Canada, Pfizer Canada, Pfizer Global, Moderna Canada, Seqirus, Sanofi Canada, GSK Canada, and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). These funds are not related to the paper. CW was executive director of the nonprofit organization First Draft, which received funds for research and advocacy work from Google, and research project support on the effectiveness of SMS-based social inoculation from WHO. She chaired the first 3 days of the conference but was not part of the consensus driving during the closing session of the meeting. EP declared receiving conference stipends, training fees, and publication fees from the Medical Research Council. He was not part of the consensus driving during the closing session of the meeting. IB is director of the WHO Collaborating Center on information systems for health, which supports WHO with broader digital health analytics and policy analysis. The center has supported the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/WHO with infodemic analytics during COVID-19. SMR declared receiving consultancy fees from the EURO Health Group research consortium and is currently a consultant in infodemic management for WHO. JR and SVDL declared that their university received research funding from NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, Google Jigsaw, WhatsApp, British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK Cabinet Office, and EU Horizon 2020. They were not part of the consensus driving during the closing session of the meeting. AG declared that his university received research funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). AS declared receiving consultancy fees from Euro Health Group A/S – Denmark for services unrelated to the topic of the conference. PB is founder and CEO of HealthEnabled, which received past funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to conduct digital social listening. JN declared employment with Harvard University, working in the field of medical misinformation. MG and MEB declared no conflicts of interest for this paper., (©Elisabeth Wilhelm, Isabella Ballalai, Marie-Eve Belanger, Peter Benjamin, Catherine Bertrand-Ferrandis, Supriya Bezbaruah, Sylvie Briand, Ian Brooks, Richard Bruns, Lucie M Bucci, Neville Calleja, Howard Chiou, Abhinav Devaria, Lorena Dini, Hyjel D'Souza, Adam G Dunn, Johannes C Eichstaedt, Silvia M A A Evers, Nina Gobat, Mika Gissler, Ian Christian Gonzales, Anatoliy Gruzd, Sarah Hess, Atsuyoshi Ishizumi, Oommen John, Ashish Joshi, Benjamin Kaluza, Nagwa Khamis, Monika Kosinska, Shibani Kulkarni, Dimitra Lingri, Ramona Ludolph, Tim Mackey, Stefan Mandić-Rajčević, Filippo Menczer, Vijaybabu Mudaliar, Shruti Murthy, Syed Nazakat, Tim Nguyen, Jennifer Nilsen, Elena Pallari, Natalia Pasternak Taschner, Elena Petelos, Mitchell J Prinstein, Jon Roozenbeek, Anton Schneider, Varadharajan Srinivasan, Aleksandar Stevanović, Brigitte Strahwald, Shabbir Syed Abdul, Sandra Varaidzo Machiri, Sander van der Linden, Christopher Voegeli, Claire Wardle, Odette Wegwarth, Becky K White, Estelle Willie, Brian Yau, Tina D Purnat. Originally published in JMIR Infodemiology (https://infodemiology.jmir.org), 20.02.2023.)