gms | German Medical Science

Background: Since the first reporting of the new Coronavirus in 2019, numerous information about the virus and the illness has been published by different sources. Together with the actual digital transformation of our entire society, the pandemic led to another pandemic: a so called infodemic. An infodemic is characterized by a flood of conflicting information through numerous channels and also mis- and disinformation. To cope with these challenges, people need skills that enable them to access, understand and use Corona- as well as health-related information to take responsibility for their own health and for their community.

Research question: Thus, the question was, how do people in the German-speaking part of Switzerland handle with Corona-specific information during the pandemic. With a representative survey at three different points in time, we aimed at understanding how people access, understand, and use Corona-specific information, where they have difficulties and what potential improvement measures could be.

Methods: In cooperation with the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Germany and Austria three representative samples of 1’000 individuals each in early summer, autumn and winter 2020 were interviewed by computer-assisted web interviews (CAWI) using a modified version of the HLS-EU-Q16 questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive methods.

Results: In early summer 2020, 55% of the Swiss population aged 18 and older reported adequate Corona-specific health literacy, which showed a tendency to increase with the duration of the pandemic (autumn: 62%; winter: 63%). Nonetheless, a great proportion reported to have difficulties with assessing the trustworthiness of information (especially from the media). These difficulties slightly decreased over time. As the pandemic progressed, the population felt less informed and the proportion of (very) poorly informed increased from 8% in early summer to 16% in winter 2020. Uncertainty due to too much information did also increase with the duration of the pandemic from 50 % in early summer to 57% in winter. Accordingly, between autumn and winter 2020, the willingness to be vaccinated decreased from initial 44% to 36%.

Discussion: Probably due to the threat of the virus itself in combination with masses of constantly changing and contradictory information, it was often difficult for the population to assess the trustworthiness of information about the Coronavirus and vaccination and to derive consequences for their own behavior as well as protective measures.

Practical Implication: It is important that all relevant stakeholders such as health organizations, authorities and media provide the population with tools to access, understand and use Corona-related information and to empower them to take responsibility for their own health as well as for their community.

Appeal for practice (science and/or health care) in one sentence: The amount and complexity of health information is increasing and therewith not only individuals need to be empowered to handle this, in fact, health organizations, authorities, educators and media need to take over responsibility as well.