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307376

Health-Related Infodemic Perception among Nursing and Non-Nursing Students: A Comparative Study

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Tags

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Abstract

Background: Increasing digitalization allows for faster information dissemination and 
infodemic. An efficient public health response can be hampered by infodemics, which also 
cause misunderstanding and mistrust among people. Hence, the current study aimed to 
compare nursing and non-nursing students regarding health-related infodemic perception. 
Subjects & Methods: Design: Comparative cross-sectional descriptive research design was 
used where 820 students were randomly enrolled from the faculty of nursing and faculty of 
arts. Tools: (1) Socio-demographic characteristics; (2) Questionnaire to assess students' 
knowledge, attitude, and the role of social media in spreading health-related infodemic; and 
(3) Arabic version of Electronic Health Literacy Scale. Results: Only 26% of students were 
familiar with the concept of health-related infodemic. Social media platforms like Facebook 
(79.5%) and YouTube (46.3%) played a significant role in the dissemination of false and 
misleading health information. Both nursing (59%) and non-nursing (57.6%) students were 
aware of the topic of health-related infodemic. Nursing students scored lower on e-health 
literacy (77.3%). Ultimately, a plethora of nursing (82.7%) and non-nursing (81.2%) students 
had negative attitudes regarding health-related infodemic. Conclusion: Both nursing and 
non-nursing students showed unfavorable attitudes toward the health information epidemic. 
Nursing students knew more about health-related infodemics, despite having lower e-health 
literacy scores than non-nursing students. As students become more knowledgeable and 
literate about health-related infodemic, they consequently develop a negative attitude toward 
it. Recommendations: Governments must build resilience to misinformation and engage and 
empower communities to take positive actions particularly during outbreaks to control 
infodemics and safeguard the public's health. 

DOI

10.21608/tsnj.2023.307376

Authors

First Name

Fatma

Last Name

Ahmed

MiddleName

Mohammed

Affiliation

assistant Professor of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Zagazig UniversityEgypt

Email

fmabdelfatah@nursing.zu.edu.eg

City

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Orcid

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First Name

Nashwa

Last Name

Atia

MiddleName

Saber

Affiliation

Lecturer of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Zagazig University- Egypt

Email

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City

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Orcid

-

Volume

30

Article Issue

3

Related Issue

42390

Issue Date

2023-08-01

Receive Date

2023-07-12

Publish Date

2023-08-01

Page Start

94

Page End

108

Print ISSN

2314-5595

Online ISSN

2735-5519

Link

https://tsnj.journals.ekb.eg/article_307376.html

Detail API

https://tsnj.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=307376

Order

6

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,053

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Tanta Scientific Nursing Journal

Publication Link

https://tsnj.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Health-Related Infodemic Perception among Nursing and Non-Nursing Students: A Comparative Study

Details

Type

Article

Created At

25 Dec 2024