Infodemic Management in Public Health Crises

Infodemic management, as defined as the systematic use of risk- and evidence-based analysis and approaches to manage the infodemic and reduce its impact on health behaviors during health emergencies is a crucial global public health threat that has become most evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The infodemic increases the devastating effects of public health crises in the 21st century - this is challenging further the effectiveness of risk communication and community engagement, across public health problems, including outbreaks, pandemics, conflict, natural disasters, etc., and beyond. This public health threat has been acknowledged at the level of heads of state across all continents, and public health professionals must continue to take a leadership role in infodemic management and the building of information literacy.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, different disciplines have focused on infodemic threats and infodemic management to produce scientific evidence. In addition to COVID-19, other crises like disasters, conflicts, etc. keep the global health agenda busy and wait for immediate solutions. Each of the crises has its agenda, however, problems like the infodemic make the situation more complicated. The global public health community needs to understand all the different infodemic sources in different crises. It is also important to consider that as different types of crises occur in different regions of the world, experiences from high-, middle-, and low-income countries would provide wider and more informed perspectives and experiences.

Infodemic management uses health education and promotion approaches and techniques. For instance, health promotion can be used to improve the health literacy of the community and to find ways to manage crises, including the infodemic, and health education focuses on human behaviors, just as infodemic management does.

Considering these points, this Research Topic welcomes global submissions around the different types of public health crises to provide insight into the different aspects of infodemic management including determinants, dynamics, methodology, education, and recommendations. This collection aims to showcase the interdisciplinary work on infodemic and infodemic management in public health crises that has grown exponentially during the pandemic to inform professionals, the public, and the next generations. In addition, this collection will provide the opportunity to learn more about approaches and techniques for promoting education about infodemic management amongst the public. This will allow understanding of infodemic-related concerns and questions amongst communities, as well as contribute to building resilience to misinformation and empowering communities to take positive action during crises.

The following themes, in the context of public health crises (i.e., pandemics, outbreaks, disasters, conflicts, etc.) are welcome into the collection:
• Public education around infodemics, misinformation, and infodemic management;
• Current successes and barriers in public health practices for infodemic and infodemic management;
• Addressing training needs in infodemic management (i.e., training approaches to increase community resilience);
• New horizons in infodemic management;
• Research gaps in infodemic management;
• E-health literacy, health literacy, and digital health literacy in infodemic management;
• Conceptual framework, themes, and historical background about infodemic and infodemic management;

Submissions of the following article types are welcome into this collection: Original research, Commentary, Review, Perspective, Brief research report, and Conceptual analysis.