Acceso usuarios
Ana I. Ibáñez Hernández
, M. Carmen Carretón Ballester 
La creación y difusión de desinformación en salud, intencionada o no, es un problema social. La investigación, comprometida con la ciudadanía para el desarrollo de sociedades sostenibles, puede diagnosticar aquellos contenidos que generen un problema social para contribuir a su solución.
Este estudio analiza la desinformación en salud y su contribución al desarrollo sostenible, así como los grupos de interés en la literatura científica. Para ello, se realizó una revisión bibliográfica desde 2017 a 2023 en la base de datos Scopus. Se analizaron, adaptando la metodología de análisis del desempeño de Patra et al. (2023), un total de 81 artículos del área de las ciencias sociales.
Los resultados describen una producción científica, mayoritariamente europea, donde prescriptores formales, agencias de verificación y alfabetización mediática son los recursos más comunes para combatir la desinformación y mantener la credibilidad y confianza en las fuentes con autoridad. La actividad científica debería incluir, como objeto de estudio, el impacto de la desinformación en la salud de los públicos para contribuir a solucionar problemas sociales como metas de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible.
The pandemic brought with it an excess of health information, hoaxes and false news shared by any media, especially sensitive regarding treatments or vaccines. This compromises public health and creates a social problem. The literature review shows that misinformation, driven by anonymous sources and conspiracy theories, aggravates health-related problems by questioning health solutions and public health programs. Swift action to delegitimize this information is crucial because social media, while facilitating communication, also amplifies polarization and politicization, putting social and political relationships at risk. Rigorous and transparent research on this object of study is crucial to promote evidence-based knowledge to help combat misinformation.
Through research, universities can contribute to empirically solving societal challenges, such as misinformation, economic or environmental, by aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this way, institutions can help researchers understand the relationship of their work to the SDGs by guiding their efforts and being accountable for how they contribute to the 2030 Agenda. In this way, they would exercise their responsibility to educate and generate knowledge to strengthen, through their scientific work, health communication and its impact on sustainability.
The aim of this study is to analyze the research carried out on health disinformation, in order to ascertain its impact on sustainable development, since its implications are usually the subject of multiple research studies. The disease and the uncertainty surrounding it make the population suffering from it more vulnerable, the most logical reaction being the search for information and solutions to their problem, especially on the Internet.
Regarding the methodology applied, a literature review was conducted in the Scopus database, from 2017 to 2023, analyzing 81 articles, based on the performance analysis methodology proposed by Patra et al. (2023. The search was performed from the terms "disinformation" AND "fake news" AND "Health" with the keyword filter "disinformation", "fake news", "social media", "misinformation" and "public health". The choice of this database is justified by the prior analysis of ElSevier teams to label papers, before publication, according to their contribution to the SDGs, which connects scientific production in its contribution to sustainable development.
The analysis reveals a fluctuating pattern in research productivity on misinformation, with an increase until 2022 followed by a decrease in 2023. In addition, the significant presence of articles from the field of social sciences (40%) in journals indexed in Scopus, highlighting the importance of this topic in academia. The data show a growing interest in understanding and addressing misinformation from various disciplines, reflecting the complexity of the phenomenon and its multidimensional impact.
Although they come from up to 25 different geographical areas, most of the authors are concentrated in Europe and particularly in Spain, showing a leadership in disinformation research especially related to the pandemic. This points to the need for international collaboration and global approaches to address this type of worldwide problem.
Although health misinformation-as an object of study in academia-is related to some of the Sustainable Development Goals, its contribution to the 2030 Agenda might be questionable. Although the labels assigned in the database are scarce and do not contemplate all the SDGs, it can be concluded that the most recurrent are those that address citizenship health (SDG 3), seeking partnerships with other institutions (SDG 17).
Academia should consider the impact of research on sustainability and focus on digital health and media literacy, especially targeting specific vulnerable audiences and minorities. Another area for improvement in this regard would be to strengthen international collaboration to more effectively address health misinformation in the context of the SDGs.
