• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.53-74
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• 2024

The proliferation of health misinformation gained momentum amidst the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). People stuck in their homes, without work pressure, regardless of health concerns towards personal, family, or peer groups, consistently demanded information. People became engaged with misinformation while attempting to find health information content. This study used the content analysis method and analyzed 1,154 misinformation stories from four prominent signatories of the International Fact-Checking Network during the pandemic. The study finds the five main categories of misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. These are 1) the severity of the virus, 2) cure, prevention, and treatment, 3) myths and rumors about vaccines, 4) health authorities' guidelines, and 5) personal and social impacts. Various sub-categories supported the content characteristics of these categories. The study also analyzed the emotional valence of health misinformation. It was found that misinformation containing negative sentiments got higher engagement during the pandemic. Positive and neutral sentiment misinformation has less reach. Surprise, fear, and anger/aggressive emotions highly affected people during the pandemic; in general, people and social media users warning people to safeguard themselves from COVID-19 and creating a confusing state were found as the primary motivation behind the propagation of misinformation. The present study offers valuable perspectives on the mechanisms underlying the spread of health-related misinformation amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. It highlights the significance of discerning the accuracy of information and the feelings it conveys in minimizing the adverse effects on the well-being of public health.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.171-174
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• 2020

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.

• 한국정보시스템학회지:정보시스템연구
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.105-129
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• 2013

Recently, since the interest with well-being has been getting higher than ever, people want reliable source of information related with health and medical treatment. Because of the characteristics of information related with medical care, there have been difficulties to find the information from books, television and internet surfing, for treating disease. Misinformation that can be obtained when considering dangerous situations or side effects, the role of the e-Health system is becoming more important. The objective of this study is an analysis of correlation and effect among patient's information need, e-Health system use and system outcome. To achieve the object of this study, e-Health system had been given to patients of breast cancer in Wisconsin and Detroit for 16 weeks. As a result, 282 sample was gathered and modified to meet purpose of the study. As a result, the information needs of patients due to the performance of the e-Health systems and shown to affect even the perception of patients' emotional and physical health and social support.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.25-47
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• 2021

This study analyzes 419 fake news items published in India, a fake-news-prone country, to identify the major themes, content types, and sources of social media fake news. The results show that fake news shared on social media has six major themes: health, religion, politics, crime, entertainment, and miscellaneous; eight types of content: text, photo, audio, and video, text & photo, text & video, photo & video, and text & photo & video; and two main sources: online sources and the mainstream media. Health-related fake news is more common only during a health crisis, whereas fake news related to religion and politics seems more prevalent, emerging from online media. Text & photo and text & video have three-fourths of the total share of fake news, and most of them are from online media: online media is the main source of fake news on social media as well. On the other hand, mainstream media mostly produces political fake news. This study, presenting some novel findings that may help researchers to understand and policymakers to control fake news on social media, invites more academic investigations of religious and political fake news in India. Two important limitations of this study are related to the data source and data collection period, which may have an impact on the results.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.252-255
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• 2020

This article aims to discuss the barriers hindering cancer patients from receiving early palliative care, which has been demonstrated to be more effective in improving quality of life and controlling symptoms. Specifically, there are barriers in four aspects of delivering early palliative care. First, the difficulty of starting discussions about early palliative care and the lack of adequate appointment time can impede communication between oncologists and patients and their family members. Second, determining the timing of referral and deciding upon and applying a standard for referral can be barriers in the process of referral from oncology to palliative care. Third, palliative care patients and their family members can face difficulties regarding in what format and by whom the services will be delivered. Fourth, biases, misinformation, and inaccurate beliefs can be barriers in the process of patients and their family members accepting care. In order to facilitate early palliative care, research and policy regarding these barriers are necessary, along with efforts made by medical staff.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.77-90
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• 2020

This study analyzes N=181 social media rumors from Bangladesh to find out the most popular themes, sources, and aims. The result shows that social media rumors have seven popular themes: political, health & education, crime & human rights, religious, religiopolitical, entertainment, and other. Also, online media and mainstream media are the two main sources of social media rumors, along with three tentative aims: positive, negative, and unknown. A few major findings of this research are: Political rumors dominate social media, but its percentage is decreasing, while religion-related rumors are increasing; most of the social media rumors are negative and emerge from online media, and social media itself is the dominant online source of social media rumors; and, most of the health-related rumors are negative and surge during a crisis period, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper identifies some of its limitations with the data collection period, data source, and data analysis. Providing a few research directions, this study also elucidates the contributions of its results in academia and policymaking.

• 한국학교보건학회지
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• 제33권1호
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• pp.58-66
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• 2020

Purpose: HPV vaccination is important for the prevention of cervical cancer and genital warts and it is recommended that females be vaccinated against HPV before having sexual contact. Although the national HPV immunization has recently started in Korea, the vaccination rate is still not high. This is a relevant study attempting to investigate the factors affecting the vaccination status of female adolescents in the target age groups focusing on mothers' knowledge and health beliefs of HPV vaccines. Methods: Participants were 206 mothers who had daughters at the target age for the national HPV vaccination program living in a metropolitan city. Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire about HPV knowledge and health beliefs of HPV vaccines, consisting of perceived susceptibility seriousness, benefits, barriers, and cues to action. Results: The participants' knowledge of HPV was significantly correlated with the overall health beliefs. The factors influencing mothers regarding the HPV vaccination status of their adolescent daughters were found to be perceived barriers, advice on vaccination from medical staff, and perceived benefits. Conclusion: There is a need to organize subject-specific education programs focusing on correcting misinformation about the side effects and benefits of HPV vaccines. When operating education programs, it is recommended that participants include both students and their parents, that various approaches be implemented such as formal health classes, home correspondence and online education, and that medical personnel be also involved as education providers.

• 디지털융복합연구
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• 제17권5호
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• pp.137-143
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• 2019

가짜 뉴스는 소셜 미디어와 같이 사용자가 상호작용하는 미디어 플랫폼에서 정보가 빠른 속도로 확산되는 이점을 가지는 오류 정보(misinformation)의 한 형태이다. 최근 가짜 뉴스의 증가로 인해 사회적으로 많은 문제가 발생하고 있다. 본 논문에서는 이러한 가짜 뉴스를 탐지하는 방법을 제안한다. 이전의 가짜 뉴스 탐지는 텍스트 분석을 사용한 연구가 주로 수행되었다. 본 연구는 소셜 미디어의 뉴스가 확산되는 네트워크에 초점을 두고, 네트워크 임베딩 방법인 DeepWalk 로 자질을 생성하고 로지스틱 회귀분석을 사용하여 가짜 뉴스를 분류한다. 인터넷에 공개된 뉴스 211개와 120만개의 뉴스 확산 네트워크 데이터를 사용한 가짜 뉴스 탐지에 대한 실험을 수행하였다. 연구 결과 텍스트 분석에 비하여 네트워크 임베딩을 사용한 가짜 뉴스 탐지의 정확도가 최소 1.7%에서 최대 10.6% 더 높게 나타났다. 또한, 텍스트 분석과 네트워크 임베딩을 결합한 가짜 뉴스 탐지는 네트워크 임베딩에 비해 정확도의 상승이 나타나지 않았다. 본 연구의 결과는 기업이나 조직은 온라인 상에서 확산되는 가짜 뉴스 탐지에 효과적으로 활용될 수 있다.

• 한국프랜차이즈경영연구
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.7-17
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• 2020

Purpose - As the competition in the foodservice franchise industry and the market becomes fierce and the entry barrier is lowered, the foodservice franchisor and franchisees strive to increase their competitive advantage in the market. Therefore, the franchisor and franchisees use experience management strategies to enhance the positive experiences of customers visiting the stores. In this regard, this study examines the effects of customer-oriented activities (physical-, social-, health-, and service-oriented activities) on utilitarian and hedonic values, and loyalty using stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and value-expectancy theory. Research design, data, methodology - The data were collected from panels of online survey company, who visited a foodservice franchisee within last month. The survey was conducted for about 15 days from March 7, 2019 to March 21, 2019, and about 3,500 e-mails and messages were distributed to ask for the survey. A total 412 responded and completed the questionnaires. Of the 412 completed questionaires, 12 were discarded due to missing and misinformation data and 400 were retained for further data analysis. Results --The results showed that social oriented activities, health oriented activities, and service oriented activities had positive effects on hedonic value, while physical oriented activities did not have a significant effect on hedonic value. Health oriented activities and service oriented activities had positive effects on utilitarian value, while physical oriented activities and social oriented activities had no significant effects on utilitarian value. Hedonic and utilitarian values also have a positive effect on loyalty. Conclusions - First, food service franchises should provide services and menus in consideration of the health of customers. When a customer visits the store, franchisee should provide more health-oriented food or materials and clean and comfortable conditions so as not to threaten the health of the customer. Second, the food service franchise must build a service-oriented system. Foodservice franchisor need to provide continuous service training not only to the franchisees, but also to the employees of the franchisees. Third, franchise should design a store where customers can form social exchanges through providing various information exchange to customers and making the store as a local community center.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.305-310
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• 2023

Background In this modern era of science-based medicine, some people still accept folk remedies as an alternative form of medicine. However, misinformation and misuse of folk medicines can result in dangerous complications. Among the possible complications of folk remedy use, this study focused on the clinical characteristics of burns caused by folk remedies. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of patients who had been treated for burns caused by folk remedies from May 2015 to April 2022. Data were collected on patients' age and gender, type of folk remedy, reason for using the folk remedy, the severity of the burn, the number of wounds, lesion type, and type of treatment. Results We found 59 patients with burns due to folk remedies. Most were female (76.3%) and ≥ 60 years old (72.9%). The most common type of folk remedy was moxibustion (74.6%), followed by the use of glacial acetic acid (20.3%). The reasons for using folk remedies were arthralgia relief (39%), health improvement (18.6%), and treatment of tinea pedis (11.9%). Most patients had multiple wound sites and had burns that were considered severe, requiring surgical treatment (72.9%). The majority of lesions were on the lower extremity, including the foot. Conclusion This study described the risk of burns caused by folk remedies and the clinical characteristics of the wounds. The results emphasize the need for greater public awareness of the risk of burn injuries when using folk remedies.