TY  - JOUR
AU  - Nakanishi, Miharu
AU  - Sakai, Mai
AU  - Takagi, Gen
AU  - Toshi, Keita
AU  - Wakashima, Koubun
AU  - Yoshii, Hatsumi
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/7/7
TI  - The Association Between COVID-19 Information Sources and Stigma Against Health Care Workers Among College Students: Cross-sectional, Observational Study
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e35806
VL  - 6
IS  - 7
KW  - health personnel
KW  - social media
KW  - social stigma
KW  - young adult
KW  - Twitter
KW  - public health
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - health care workers
KW  - students
KW  - information accuracy
KW  - information credibility
KW  - dissemination
KW  - information source
KW  - misinformation
KW  - information spread
KW  - infodemiology
AB  - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered stigmatic attitudes against health care workers. Some forms of social media may play a role in disseminating stigmatizing messages. Objective: We aimed to investigate the association between COVID-19 information sources and stigma against health care workers among college students during the pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using a web-based platform in the Tohoku region of Japan. College students aged ≥20 years were asked to complete the questionnaire between August 18 and October 31, 2020. Stigma against health care workers was evaluated using a modified Japanese version of the Social Distance Scale. Participants were also asked to rate their perceived vulnerability to infection using the Japanese version of the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease scale. Results: A total of 281 students from 8 colleges completed the web-based survey. There were 139 (49.5%) participants who used Twitter, 187 (66.5%) who used news websites, and 46 (16.4%) who used the websites of public health agencies as COVID-19 information sources. After adjusting for age, sex, department, and Perceived Vulnerability to Disease scores, the level of stigma did not differ between students who used Twitter and those who did not. Students who used the websites of public health agencies showed a significantly less stigmatic attitude than those who did not. Conclusions: Fact-checking and directing visitors to credible information sources from public health agencies may have prevented the formation of stigmatic attitudes toward health care workers. An effective strategy to enable easy access to information provided by public agencies should be integrated into widespread web-based platforms. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2022/7/e35806
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/35806
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35797105
DO  - 10.2196/35806
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/35806
ER  -