Health Literacy and Impact on the ‘Infodemic’

Health literacy is an individual’s ability to find, understand, and use information and services in order to make well-informed health-related decisions for themselves or others. Only about 12% of Americans are considered health literate. When health organizations provide patients health information that is difficult for the patient to understand, or has unfamiliar and confusing steps, we create a health literacy problem. Low health literacy is common among Americans who have limited education, are older, have lower socio-economic statuses, are non-native English speakers, and those with chronic medical conditions. Misinformation, which is false or inaccurate information that can deceive or misinform others, can create confusion, fear, and anxiety among those with low health literacy. It can even impact those who have high health literacy and their ability to understand medical information. Misinformation has arguably spread just as fast, or faster, than COVID-19 itself. 

Health Literacy’s Importance During a Pandemic

Having a high rate of health literacy can help prevent the onset of illness and disease, reduce national disease averages, and improve population health. A current and persistent threat to global health is the COVID-19 virus, which has caused mass casualties and long-lasting negative health outcomes to the affected global population. There are currently 11 variants of COVID-19, with the Delta variant being of particular interest. Due to an increase in strains and total cases, a rapid transmission of accurate and reliable health information is crucial in preventing the virus from spreading further. Patients who don’t have access to accurate and reliable health information have higher hospitalization rates and develop more chronic diseases, on average. Similarly, Pfizer states that low health literacy is associated with many adverse health outcomes, such as: 

1. Lower reported health status
2. Greater mortality rates
3. Less-specific disease knowledge and ability to recognize common signs and symptoms of illness.
4. Greater utilization of hospital services, and less confidence and skills needed for self-care and chronic disease management. 

The Lancet notes that health literacy also involves taking social responsibility, as thinking beyond personal choices and self-interest can make an impact on reducing the rapid transmission of COVID-19 and increase vaccination rates. Health literacy provides the tools needed to prevent and combat these negative health outcomes, and allows patients to make educated decisions about their health. 

Impact on Vaccine Development

The current goal is to get 75% of the world population vaccinated with one of the approved vaccines available; Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson/Janssen. Achieving this goal of 75% would mean that herd immunity could take effect, where enough people are protected from COVID-19 to effectively control its spread, thus reducing associated transmission and mortality rates. Currently, about 46.8% of the world has received at least one dose of the three vaccines listed. As of late September of 2021, Africa had the lowest vaccination rate, and Europe had the highest, with North America following closely behind. 79% of shots administered are in high or upper-middle-income countries, and 0.5% of doses were administered in low income countries. Low health literacy and misinformation have targeted individuals through social media, news outlets, word of mouth, etc. Some common misconceptions include:

1. The COVID-19 vaccine contains a microchip.
2. The vaccine can make an individual magnetic.
3. The vaccine can make an individual ‘shed’ vaccine components outside of the body.
4. The vaccine alters a human body’s DNA.
5. The vaccine alters a woman’s fertility.

The CDC notes that most of the misinformation and disinformation has been centered around vaccine development, safety and effectiveness, and COVID-19 denialism. In addition, the WHO calls the spread of misleading COVID-19 and vaccine information an infodemic, that furthers, “skepticism and distrust, which is the perfect environment for fear, anxiety, finger-pointing, stigma, violent aggression and dismissal of proven public health measures – which can lead to loss of life.” This scepticism and distrust has cost the United States over $5 billion from June-August of 2021 from preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations, and caused over 280,000 preventable cases among the unvaccinated during the same time period. Since the onset of the virus, nearly 4.8 million have lost their lives worldwide. 

How to Monitor Misinformation

In order to make well-informed decisions about one’s health, access to reliable and factual health information is essential. Monitoring misinformation and disinformation during a global pandemic can be challenging, but there are strategies available to assist with this goal. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) recommends these 8 strategies to help spot misinformation:

1. Consider the source: identify the author (if possible) and investigate other publications the author has made. Is the author relevant and trustworthy?
2. Read beyond the story or publication, or compare other articles to it in order to increase validity.
3. Make sure the supporting sources are credible, and support the publication.
4. Identify if others agree: is it peer-reviewed, or trustworthy among others?
5. Try to identify if it is a joke/satire.
6. Check your biases, and consider your own beliefs as they could affect judgement.
7. Ask the experts: consult credible, trustworthy sources like the WHO, CDC, etc. 
8. Read the article or story before you click share.

If one comes across a source that is spreading false information, there are ways to report it here, which provides instructions to report misinformation/disinformation among various social media outlets, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, etc.