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Unreliable health claims found on social media can lead to poorly informed choices. The spreading of misinformation is a growing problem in today’s society, and one that has been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. iHealthFacts.ie was created in response to this. It is an Irish resource developed by the Health Research Board-Trials Methodology Research Network (HRB-TMRN), Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland based in the National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland.

An Open Letter published on HRB Open Research discusses this initiative in more detail. First author, Marina Zaki is part of the team from National University of Ireland Galway, working on iHealthFacts.ie and in this blog post, she tells us how iHealthFacts.ie can help people make well-informed decisions about their own health.

Misinformation costs lives 

The term ‘infodemic’ comes from the words ‘information’ and ‘epidemic’ and means an ‘overabundance of information, both online and offline’ (WHO 2020). Although this is an ongoing phenomenon, this is the first pandemic where social media played a significant role in disseminating health information to keep people informed and connected.

Unfortunately, the technology and communication channels relied on to support the global response also enable the infodemic. Unreliable health claims pose a significant risk to public health both physically and emotionally. Disinformation (which is spread deliberately) and misinformation (false information spread regardless of intent to mislead) spread through social media platforms can also lead to mistrust in authorities, and undermine public health advice.

Rumour has it

There is evidence that unfiltered information received through different social media platforms has caused widespread confusion, fear and anxiety among members of the public and healthcare workers during the pandemic (Ahmad and Murad, 2020). A recent news article found that more than 800 social media posts, containing misinformation or of potential harm to people’s health, were reported to the Health Service Executive (HSE) since February 2021.

We wanted to create a resource where the public can quickly and easily check the reliability of a health claim. iHealthFacts provides the public with an online, accessible resource where they can check the current evidence for health claims circulating on social media.

Fact checking health claims

The iHealthFacts team consists of healthcare professionals, researchers, scientists, and members of Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) groups. We aim to provide robust, unbiased information, and this skill mix supports the systematic iHealthFacts process.

We have Evidence Researchers and Evidence Advisors who fact check claims using a rigorous process.  We hope this will help members of the public critically assess what they read or hear, while supporting them to make well-informed decisions about their own health.

Evidence Researchers undertake the preliminary research and write the first draft of the health claim check. They are experienced in reviewing and navigating the wider body of literature and assessing the quality of evidence of the studies. Evidence Advisors offer topic expertise, providing a comprehensive perspective.

In addition, the iHealthFacts team includes PPI advisors who review all health claim checks to ensure the answers use plain language and are accessible to the public. A final review is undertaken by a Health Journalist.

Battling the infodemic

iHealthFacts has helped combat the infodemic nationally and internationally, with our reach spanning many nationalities, cultures, and age groups. We aim to reach a broad demographic, including populations from diverse socioeconomic, educational, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.

Since its launch in April 2020, the team at iHealthFacts.ie including Declan Devane, Thomas Conway, Sandra Galvin, Nikita Burke and Elaine Finucane has had over 14,000 unique users, 48,000 page views, 1,500 individual searches and 500 questions submitted by the public to be fact checked. We have fact checked 38 questions submitted by the public to date.

Debunking urban legends

Over the last year, the iHealthFacts team has mostly dealt with claims around COVID-19. However, we have also been asked to fact check several non-COVID-19 related health claims, including the truth behind ‘old wives’ tales. For example, the public asked us to fact check whether dock leaves relieve nettle stings (commonly considered effective in Ireland). While some treatments may have been used for a long time or by many people, it does not always mean they will help or be safe for others (IHC 2021).

Trust is built on openness and transparency

Open peer review is an excellent way of sharing insight with the research community and beyond. Providing such transparency can create trust in the publishing process and limit the “cherry-picking” of what get research gets published. This is why we decided to publish our Open Letter on HRB Open Research. We also thought it was appropriate to share our insight about this HRB funded initiative on HRB’s own open access publishing platform.

There are many benefits of publishing on HRB Open Research, as well as it being a positive experience and an efficient service. Knowing that the articles are indexed in PubMed bibliographic database is another bonus, as it ensures the article can have a wider reach.

You can read the Open Letter and the peer review reports via HRB Open Research, ‘Battling the COVID-19 infodemic in an Irish context: the role of iHealthFacts’ >>