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      Impact of ‘infodemic in pandemic’ on food and nutrition related perceptions and practices of Indian internet users

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          Abstract

          The uncontrolled spread of (mis)information, news and propaganda related to COVID 19 created an ‘infodemic’ leading to panic and unscientific practices among the mass. With the largest number of internet users in the world, India has witnessed a steep rise in the number of people seeking information on social media related to COVID-19, which reached a staggering 22.3 million by March, 2020. This study aimed to evaluate the trend of COVID-19 associated food and nutrition news search by Indian internet users between 27 th January 2020 to 30 th June 2021 (time period between the first detected COVID-19 case and the end of the second wave in India) and its impact on their perceptions and practices. The association between the change in Relative Search Volume (RSV) on Google Trends (GT) of 34 popularly searched keywords classified by the researchers under 5 different categories—“Immunity”, “Eating behavior”, “Food safety”, “Food scares and concerns” and “Covid scare” showed a steep rise in search for immunity boosters, vitamin supplement brands “ayush kadha (ayurvedic decoction) during the first wave (April- August 2020). With a brief period of decline in the search trend, it again hiked correspondingly with the growing number of positive cases during the second wave in India. An online survey conducted on adult Indian internet users (n = 572) reported high (71.9%) consumption of Vitamin C rich fruits as well as Vitamin C (68.2%) and Zinc (61.4%) supplements to boost immunity. Traditional Indian spices like ginger and garlic were used by 62.9% and 50.9% respondents respectively. Most respondents reported to rely on social media for gathering COVID-19 associated tips for boosting immunity, however those with history of COVID-19 infection reported to rely more on doctors and health professionals for information. This study highlights the need of media and health literacy to advocate for the use of health information cautiously.

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          Researching Internet-Based Populations: Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Survey Research, Online Questionnaire Authoring Software Packages, and Web Survey Services

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            Misinformation of COVID-19 on the Internet: Infodemiology Study

            Background The internet has become an important source of health information for users worldwide. The novel coronavirus caused a pandemic search for information with broad dissemination of false or misleading health information. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality and readability of online information about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which was a trending topic on the internet, using validated instruments and relating the quality of information to its readability. Methods The search was based on the term “Wuhan Coronavirus” on the Google website (February 6, 2020). At the search time, the terms “COVID-19” or “SARS-CoV-2” (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) did not exist. Critical analysis was performed on the first 110 hits using the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark, the DISCERN instrument, and Google ranking. Results The first 110 websites were critically analyzed, and only 1.8% (n=2) of the websites had the HONcode seal. The JAMA benchmark showed that 39.1% (n=43) of the websites did not have any of the categories required by this tool, and only 10.0% (11/110) of the websites had the four quality criteria required by JAMA. The DISCERN score showed that 70.0% (n=77) of the websites were evaluated as having a low score and none were rated as having a high score. Conclusions Nonhealth personnel and the scientific community need to be aware about the quality of the information they read and produce, respectively. The Wuhan coronavirus health crisis misinformation was produced by the media, and the misinformation was obtained by users from the internet. The use of the internet has a risk to public health, and, in cases like this, the governments should be developing strategies to regulate health information on the internet without censuring the population. By February 6, 2020, no quality information was available on the internet about COVID-19.
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              Impact of Rumors and Misinformation on COVID-19 in Social Media

              The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has not only caused significant challenges for health systems all over the globe but also fueled the surge of numerous rumors, hoaxes, and misinformation, regarding the etiology, outcomes, prevention, and cure of the disease. Such spread of misinformation is masking healthy behaviors and promoting erroneous practices that increase the spread of the virus and ultimately result in poor physical and mental health outcomes among individuals. Myriad incidents of mishaps caused by these rumors have been reported globally. To address this issue, the frontline healthcare providers should be equipped with the most recent research findings and accurate information. The mass media, healthcare organization, community-based organizations, and other important stakeholders should build strategic partnerships and launch common platforms for disseminating authentic public health messages. Also, advanced technologies like natural language processing or data mining approaches should be applied in the detection and removal of online content with no scientific basis from all social media platforms. Furthermore, these practices should be controlled with regulatory and law enforcement measures alongside ensuring telemedicine-based services providing accurate information on COVID-19.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Formal analysisRole: Funding acquisitionRole: MethodologyRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draft
                Role: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: Writing – original draft
                Role: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: Visualization
                Role: Data curationRole: Software
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS One
                plos
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                21 April 2022
                2022
                21 April 2022
                : 17
                : 4
                : e0266705
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Nutrition Information, Communication & Health Education (NICHE) Division, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
                [2 ] Biostatistics Division, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
                Universitá degli Studi di Milano, ITALY
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: No Authors have competing interests.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4524-9646
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6329-7206
                Article
                PONE-D-21-40587
                10.1371/journal.pone.0266705
                9022866
                35446865
                05b74741-4ce3-47da-85dc-53dbcc47678c
                © 2022 Gavaravarapu et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 25 December 2021
                : 25 March 2022
                Page count
                Figures: 5, Tables: 2, Pages: 12
                Funding
                Authors received no specific funding for this work.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Nutrition
                Diet
                Food
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Nutrition
                Diet
                Food
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Medical Conditions
                Infectious Diseases
                Viral Diseases
                Covid 19
                Computer and Information Sciences
                Computer Networks
                Internet
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Immunology
                Immunity
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Immunology
                Immunity
                Social Sciences
                Sociology
                Communications
                Social Communication
                Social Media
                Computer and Information Sciences
                Network Analysis
                Social Networks
                Social Media
                Social Sciences
                Sociology
                Social Networks
                Social Media
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Research Design
                Survey Research
                Surveys
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Eukaryota
                Plants
                Vegetables
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Research Design
                Survey Research
                Questionnaires
                Custom metadata
                All relevant data are within the paper.
                COVID-19

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