Table 1. Summary of included reviews on infodemics and health misinformation.
| Review, year | No. of databases (names) | No. of studies (study types) | Study objective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Published systematic reviews | |||
| Abbott et al., 202219 | 8 (PubMed®, Epistemonikos, Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register, Embase®, CINAHL, Web of Science and WHO databases) | 280 (systematic reviews, overviews and meta-analysis) | To map the nature, scope and quality of evidence syntheses on COVID-19 and to explore the relationship between review quality and the extent of researcher, policy and media interest |
| Alvarez-Galvez et al., 202121 | 7 (Scopus, MEDLINE®, Embase®, CINAHL, Sociological Abstracts, Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews and grey literaturea) | 42 (quantitative and qualitative studies and mixed-methods studies) | To identify the factors that make possible the spread of medical and health misinformation during outbreaks and to reveal the needs and future directions for the development of new protocols that might contribute to the assessment and control of information quality in future infodemics |
| Aruhomukama & Bulafu, 202129 | 2 (PubMed® and CINAHL) | 10 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To interrogate and integrate knowledge levels and media sources of information findings of the studies on knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and practices towards COVID-19 done in low- and middle-income countries in Africa |
| Bhatt et al., 202130 | 4 (MEDLINE®, Embase®, Cochrane Databases and Google) | 5 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To assess the current use of social media in clinical practice guidelines dissemination across different medical specialties |
| Eckert et al., 201823 | 8 (PubMed®, Web of Science, CINAHL, CINAHL Complete, Communication and Mass Media Complete, PsychInfo®, WHO databases and Google Scholar) along with social media companies' reports | 79 (quantitative and qualitative studies and case studies) | To conduct a systematic review on the extant literature on social media use during all phases of a disaster cycle |
| Gabarron et al., 202120 | 5 (PubMed®, Scopus, Embase®, PsychInfo® and Google Scholar) | 22 (mixed-methods studies) | To review misinformation related to COVID-19 on social media during the first phase of the pandemic and to discuss ways to counter misinformation |
| Gunasekeran et al., 202231 | 3 (PubMed®, including MEDLINE® and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Xplore) | 35 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To highlight a brief history of social media in health care and report its potential negative and positive public health impacts |
| Lieneck et al., 202232 | 2 (EBSCO host and PubMed®) | 25 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To identify common facilitators and barriers in the literature which influence the promotion of vaccination against COVID-19 |
| Muhammed & Mathew, 202233 | 7 (Web of Science, ACM digital library, AIS electronic library, EBSCO host, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Springer link) | 28 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To identify relevant literature on the spread of misinformation |
| Patel et al., 202026 | 6 (all databases of Web of Science, PubMed®, ProQuest, Google News, Google and Google Scholar) | 35 | To canvas the ways disinformation about COVID-19 is being spread in Ukraine, so as to form a foundation for assessing how to mitigate the problem |
| Pian et al., 202134 | 12 (PubMed®, CINAHL Complete, PsychInfo®, Psych Articles, ScienceDirect, Wiley Online Library, Web of Science, EBSCO, Communication & Mass Media Complete Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts and Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection) | 251 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To synthesize the existing literature on the causes and impacts of the COVID-19 infodemic |
| Rocha et al., 202135 | 3 (MEDLINE®, Virtual Health Library and Scielo) | 14 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To evaluate the impact of social media on the dissemination of infodemic knowing and its impacts on health |
| Suarez-Lledo & Alvarez-Galvez, 202124 | 2 (MEDLINE® and PREMEDLINE) | 69 (policy briefs and technical reports) | To identify the main health misinformation topics and their prevalence on different social media platforms, focusing on methodological quality and the diverse solutions that are being implemented to address this public health concern |
| Tang et al., 201825 | 5 (PubMed®, PsychInfo®, CINAHL Plus, ProQuest® and Communication Source) | 30 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To better understand the status of existing research on emerging infectious diseases communication on social media |
| Truong et al., 202227 | 4 (PsychInfo®, MEDLINE®, Global Health and Embase®) | 28 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To examine the factors that promote vaccine hesitancy or acceptance during pandemics, major epidemics and global outbreaks |
| Walter et al., 202122 | 7 (Communication Source, Education Resources Information Center, Journal Storage, MEDLINE®, ProQuest, PubMed® and Web of Science) | 24 (quantitative and qualitative studies) | To evaluate the relative impact of social media interventions designed to correct health-related misinformation |
| Wang et al., 201928 | 5 (PubMed®, Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar) | 57 (mixed-methods studies) | To uncover the current evidence and better understand the 47 mechanisms of misinformation spread |
| Ongoing systematic reviews, preprints or awaiting classification | |||
| Adu et al., 202139 | NA | NA | To estimate COVID-19 vaccine uptake and hesitancy rates for before-and-after the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved by FDA |
| Dong et al., 202240 | NA | NA | To review and synthesize the findings from qualitative studies conducted in different countries on the emergence, spread and consequences of false and misleading information about the pandemic |
| Fazeli et al., 202137 | NA | NA | Awaiting classification (limited access to the full-text file) |
| Gentile et al., 202136 | NA | NA | Awaiting classification (limited access to the full-text file) |
| Goldsmith et al., 202241 | NA | NA | To determine the extent and nature of social media use in migrant and ethnic minority communities for COVID-19 information and implications for preventative health measures including vaccination intent and uptake |
| Hilberts et al., 202142 | NA | NA | To establish the risk of health misinformation in social media to public health |
| Karimi-Shahanjarin et al., 202143 | NA | NA | To identify what initiatives and policies have been suggested and implemented to respond to and alleviate the harm caused by misinformation and disinformation concerning COVID-19 |
| McGowan & Ekeigwe, 202144 | NA | NA | To assess if exposure to misinformation or disinformation influence health information-seeking behaviours |
| Pauletto et al., 202145 | NA | NA | To evaluate what are pros and cons of using social media during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Pimenta et al., 202046 | NA | NA | To gather evidence on the impact of information about COVID-19 on the mental health of the population |
| Prabhu & Nayak, 202147 | NA | NA | To appraise what are the effects of the COVID-19 media based infodemic on mental health of general public |
| Trushna et al., 202148 | NA | NA | To undertake a mixed-methods systematic review exploring COVID-19 stigmatization, in terms of differences in experience and/or perception of different population sub-groups exposed to COVID-19, its mediators including media communications, coping strategies adopted to deal with such stigmata and the consequences in terms of health effects and health-seeking behaviour of affected individuals |
| Vass et al., 202238 | NA | NA | Awaiting classification (limited access to the full-text file) |
| Zhai et al., 202149 | NA | NA | To provide an overview of the current state of research concerning individual-level psychological and behavioural response to COVID-19-related information from different sources, as well as presenting the challenges and future research directions |
COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; FDA: Food and Drug Administration; NA: not applicable; WHO: World Health Organization.
a There was an inconsistency between the used databases provided in the study’s abstract and those presented in the methods section. We considered the databases shown in the methods section.