WHAT IS MEDICAL INFORMATION DISORDER?

Nowadays, the spread of false information largely occurs through our social media. Everybody can share their thoughts or strong opinions online and claim to be an expert, when in reality they are not. Not all posts are fact-checked and can be read by everyone who comes across it. In this way, false information can spread very rapidly. Additionally, everybody can react to topics and share their own views, which causes there to be many circulating theories on one topic alone that claim to be the truth. In this overwhelming sea of information, it can be hard to know what information to trust. Information disorder is the term for any form of false information that is spread for instance within groups, from instances to individuals, or by individuals amongst each other. Medical information disorder (MID) is false information specifically about medical topics and could misinform you about important health-related issues. When people believe these false informations and subsequently act in line with their beliefs, we can all imagine that this could potentially do a lot of harm to their own health and to that of others.

A shocking example of MID is when Australian wellness blogger Belle Gibson created an unreliable health app. She shared with her followers that she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and tried radiation and chemotherapy treatments, but that she wanted to take a different approach: to manage her disease with diet, exercise and alternative therapy. Her app was downloaded more than 200.000 times only in the first month. However, years later, she admitted that she had never been terminally ill. Many people, possibly needing life saving healthcare themselves, had been lied to and given false information, on the basis of which they may have possibly altered their approach to their health. 

Another, more general, well-known false information phenomenon is fake news, in which the media or influential persons twist events or research to for instance gain political supporters. As researchers Tandoc, Lim & Ling beautifully define fake news: “Fake news hides under a veneer of legitimacy as it takes on some form of credibility by trying to appear like real news.” Fake news in a medical context is increasingly complicated, as not all false information is intentionally created. Immediately, the questions rise: how does this information originate and why would people spread false information? To give an answer to those questions, we need to make a distinction between ‘fake news’ and information disorder. Additionally, we need to understand that there are three types of medical information disorder: medical misinformation, medical disinformation and medical malinformation.

Medical misinformation is the spread of information that is unintentionally false and is not shared with the motive to hurt anyone. Misinformation can occur when misconception arises, for example a misinterpretation of a study by a journalist. But also satire, clickbait and misleading memes can sometimes be categorized as misinformation. Medical disinformation is the spread of false information that is consciously created and shared with the intention to harm. An example of this could be falsification of results by a scientist or intentionally created conspiracy theories. Lastly, we have medical malinformation. This is true information, which is shared to harm, for example the spreading of a rare story of a patient with adverse effects after drug use which scares people even when that example is rare. This clear distinction does, however, not apply to fake news. Fake news is more broadly defined: the word itself couples fake news inherently to ‘real’ news. Therefore, the definition of fake news is also linked to ‘real’ news.

We now know what medical information disorder is and that there are three different types, each with different causes and motives. From this definition it immediately becomes clear that medical misinformation is a complicated issue, without one easy solution. We believe that MID is an important problem in our society that asks for a multidisciplinary approach. You can learn more about that under ‘Why is MID a problem?’, 'What makes it so complex?' and ‘Is there a solution?’. For now, our goal is to try our best to inform you about the psychology and tricks behind medical information disorders. In this way, we hope that it gets easier to judge whether information is trustworthy, and to raise awareness of this problem. 

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