Abstract
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.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1173-1182 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Health Expectations |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 The Authors. Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Keywords
- conflicting information
- decision-making
- health