KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Health misinformation is a serious issue linked to low health literacy, with spread exacerbated by social media and AI.
• Pharmaceutical companies can help combat health misinformation through engaging with patients to develop accessible materials, and reaching audiences through the digital channels they use.

The spread of misinformation can have a serious impact on health and weaken public confidence in healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical industry. In a recent PMLiVE article, Catherine Devaney explores how pharmaceutical companies can help combat the rapid spread of health misinformation online.

Devaney highlights that a lack of trust in institutions, healthcare systems, and governments is driving the public away from traditional sources of health information. In addition, “misinformation is easier to understand for many people”, with ~40% of working age adults in the UK unable to understand everyday health information due to low levels of health literacy. Health misinformation spreads rapidly on social media and through the use of AI, and often gains traction by appealing to emotions like fear, hope, or scepticism.

“Health communicators must proactively build trust by making information available in an accessible and engaging way.”

Devaney advises that health communicators must proactively build trust by making information available in an accessible and engaging way. She outlines key actions that health communicators in pharma can take, including:

• fostering relationships between key stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, scientists, and patient advocates, to promote transparency and trust
• gaining accreditation for evidence-based, plain language, and accessible materials, such as the Patient Information Forum (PIF) TICK certification
• engaging with patients who will use the information during the development process, to learn from their unique insights and ensure that the content is tailored to their needs
• monitoring digital platforms proactively for misinformation trends and developing a plan to engage with audiences via the same channels.

Devaney urges the pharmaceutical industry to use their expertise and resources to join the fight against misinformation, making a positive impact on health inequities.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Improving health literacy is vital for enhancing health-related decision-making.
• Medical writers can support efforts to improve health literacy by producing clear content, targeted to the intended audience.

Health literacy is a powerful instrument for improving the health status of both individuals and communities. A recent article in the European Medical Writers Association’s journal Medical Writing explored how health literacy influences healthcare decision-making processes, highlighting the important role medical communications professionals can play in advancing health literacy.

Health literacy can be defined as “the knowledge, motivation, and competence to access, understand, appraise, and apply information to make decisions in terms of healthcare, disease prevention, and health promotion”. Three dimensions of health literacy have been described:

• functional: basic skills of reading and numeracy required to understand health information
• interactive: ability to extract and derive meaning from health information, and the capacity to apply this to changing circumstances
• critical: ability to critically assess health information and apply this knowledge to exert control over personal situation.

The 2011 European health literacy survey carried out in 8 countries found that health literacy was inadequate in 12% of the total surveyed population (1.8–26.9% of respondents by country), with financial deprivation, low social status, low education level, and old age identified as predictors of poor health literacy.

Two areas where poor health literacy may have a negative impact are the ability to distinguish between real and fake news (such as those related to COVID-19) and patient awareness when making health-related decisions. In a study of patients enrolling in an oncology clinical trial, higher literacy levels were associated with a greater understanding of informed consent and the risk of cancer recurrence.

Medical writers can play an important role in advancing health literacy by producing patient-targeted materials in an appropriate format, using clear, descriptive, and engaging language.

As a strategy to improve health literacy, the authors stress that interventions need to be targeted to the intended audience. By doing so, policies designed to address key public health challenges can also be strengthened. Medical writers can play an important role in this process by producing patient-targeted materials in an appropriate format, using clear, descriptive, and engaging language.

The authors therefore urge the medical writing community to consider the health literacy of intended audiences and to adapt the language used to produce accessible scientific content for the target reader.

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