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COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak

OBJECTIVES: Misinformation about the COVID vaccines poses a significant challenge to vaccination efforts in many countries. This study examined Chinese citizens’ ability to correctly identify COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in geographic areas with and without a regional outbreak. We also investigat...

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Autores principales: Li, Jie, Chen, Yueying, Zhao, Xiaoquan, Yang, Xiaobing, Wang, Fan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10587398/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37869207
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1258466
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author Li, Jie
Chen, Yueying
Zhao, Xiaoquan
Yang, Xiaobing
Wang, Fan
author_facet Li, Jie
Chen, Yueying
Zhao, Xiaoquan
Yang, Xiaobing
Wang, Fan
author_sort Li, Jie
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: Misinformation about the COVID vaccines poses a significant challenge to vaccination efforts in many countries. This study examined Chinese citizens’ ability to correctly identify COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in geographic areas with and without a regional outbreak. We also investigated the associations between misinformation identification and information source usage, source trust, perceived information quality, and demographic characteristics. SETTING: The online survey was conducted in four cities from June 8th to 15th, 2021 in Guangdong Province, two of which were experiencing a regional surge of COVID-19 delta variant infections, and four cities in Hunan Province, a neighboring province largely unaffected. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 4,479 individuals aged 18 and above completed the online questionnaire. Given survey length, those who finished the study under 5 min were excluded, resulting in a final sample of 3,800. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Misinformation identification, source exposure, source trust, and perceived information quality. RESULTS: Results showed slightly higher levels of correct misinformation identification in surge vs. non-surge areas. Trust in official information sources was positively associated with correct misinformation identification in full sample analysis, while trust in informal sources was negatively associated with the same outcome. Perceived information quality was positively associated with correct misinformation identification in the full sample. CONCLUSION: Information providers in China should enhance the quality of the vaccine information they provide, and the Chinese public should balance their usage of different sources of information to acquire vaccine knowledge.
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spelling pubmed-105873982023-10-21 COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak Li, Jie Chen, Yueying Zhao, Xiaoquan Yang, Xiaobing Wang, Fan Front Public Health Public Health OBJECTIVES: Misinformation about the COVID vaccines poses a significant challenge to vaccination efforts in many countries. This study examined Chinese citizens’ ability to correctly identify COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in geographic areas with and without a regional outbreak. We also investigated the associations between misinformation identification and information source usage, source trust, perceived information quality, and demographic characteristics. SETTING: The online survey was conducted in four cities from June 8th to 15th, 2021 in Guangdong Province, two of which were experiencing a regional surge of COVID-19 delta variant infections, and four cities in Hunan Province, a neighboring province largely unaffected. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 4,479 individuals aged 18 and above completed the online questionnaire. Given survey length, those who finished the study under 5 min were excluded, resulting in a final sample of 3,800. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Misinformation identification, source exposure, source trust, and perceived information quality. RESULTS: Results showed slightly higher levels of correct misinformation identification in surge vs. non-surge areas. Trust in official information sources was positively associated with correct misinformation identification in full sample analysis, while trust in informal sources was negatively associated with the same outcome. Perceived information quality was positively associated with correct misinformation identification in the full sample. CONCLUSION: Information providers in China should enhance the quality of the vaccine information they provide, and the Chinese public should balance their usage of different sources of information to acquire vaccine knowledge. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10587398/ /pubmed/37869207 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1258466 Text en Copyright © 2023 Li, Chen, Zhao, Yang and Wang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Li, Jie
Chen, Yueying
Zhao, Xiaoquan
Yang, Xiaobing
Wang, Fan
COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak
title COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak
title_full COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak
title_fullStr COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak
title_short COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak
title_sort covid-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among chinese residents during a regional outbreak
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10587398/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37869207
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1258466
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