Conflicting health information: a critical research need

Conflicting health information is increasing in amount and visibility, as evidenced most recently by the controversy surrounding the risks and benefits of childhood vaccinations. The mechanisms through which conflicting information affects individuals are poorly understood; thus, we are unprepared t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy 2016-12, Vol.19 (6), p.1173-1182
Main Authors: Carpenter, Delesha M., Geryk, Lorie L., Chen, Annie T., Nagler, Rebekah H., Dieckmann, Nathan F., Han, Paul K. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Cancer
Childhood
Children
Clinical decision making
Conflict (Psychology)
conflicting information
Consumer Health Information
Decision Making
Disputes
Health
Health aspects
Health behavior
Health education
Health information
Health Literacy
Heterogeneity
Humans
Inconsistency
Information processing
Information sources
Internet
Knowledge
Mass Media
Medical screening
Perceptions
Quantitative psychology
Social networks
Typology
Vaccination
Viewpoint
Visibility
Womens health
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Summary:Conflicting health information is increasing in amount and visibility, as evidenced most recently by the controversy surrounding the risks and benefits of childhood vaccinations. The mechanisms through which conflicting information affects individuals are poorly understood; thus, we are unprepared to help people process conflicting information when making important health decisions. In this viewpoint article, we describe this problem, summarize insights from the existing literature on the prevalence and effects of conflicting health information, and identify important knowledge gaps. We propose a working definition of conflicting health information and describe a conceptual typology to guide future research in this area. The typology classifies conflicting information according to four fundamental dimensions: the substantive issue under conflict, the number of conflicting sources (multiplicity), the degree of evidence heterogeneity and the degree of temporal inconsistency.
ISSN:1369-6513
1369-7625
DOI:10.1111/hex.12438