The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Public and Health (Mis)information: What Polling Tells Us About Where We Have Been and Where We Might Be Going
Open accessAbstract
In 2021, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory calling health misinformation a serious threat to public health and urging all Americans to help slow its spread. The public appears to agree; a 2023 KFF poll found that three-fourths viewed the spread of false and inaccurate health information as a major problem. Although health misinformation has gained significant attention since the COVID-19 pandemic, the public's understanding of complex health issues has long been a challenge. In this article, the authors reflect on more than 30 years of polling to offer perspectives on how the public accesses, evaluates, and uses health information and discuss what recent trends may suggest about the future of the health information (and misinformation) environment. They start by examining public knowledge gaps on health and the role of partisanship in national health debates. They then look at how sources of health information have changed over time alongside declines in trust of information from government health agencies. They end by examining the current era of health misinformation, focusing on widespread uncertainty among the public and how increasing use of social media and emergent technologies have the potential to further complicate the landscape of health information and trust.
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“Vaccine hesitancy, recourse to therapies lacking scientific evidence, reduced adherence to clinical recommendations, and the proliferation of conspiratorial narratives that erode trust in the scientific community and health institutions represent well-documented manifestations of a phenomenon that operates continuously and pervasively on individual and collective health-related decision-making (11”
From Health misinformation, digital health literacy, and attitudes toward science among university students: an exploratory cross-sectional survey (2026) · cites this paper as [12]
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Cites
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Polarization, Partisanship, and Health in the United States
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Polarized Public Opinion About Public Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Research works printed but not linked: 2
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Sarcone, A., Pileggi, C., Nobile, C., Simeone, S., & Mercuri, C. (2026) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1931903 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Hamel, E., Montero, A., & Brodie, M.
- Affiliations
- Kaiser Family Foundation (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hamel, Elizabeth
- Montero, Alex
- Brodie, Mollyann
- Venue
- Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- Published
- 2025-12-01
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1081-1103
- ISSN
- 0361-6878 (ISSN-L)
- 1527-1927
- OpenAlex
- W4411498384
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 3.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Keywords
- health misinformation, public health data, health knowledge gaps, emerging technologies, health information sources, public opinion trends
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Communication, Humans, Politics, Public Health, Public Opinion, United States, Consumer Health Information, Pandemics, Social Media
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Public and Health (Mis)information: What Polling Tells Us About Where We Have Been and Where We Might Be Going. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1215/03616878-11995152
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- Hamel, E., Montero, A., & Brodie, M. (2025). The Public and Health (Mis)information: What Polling Tells Us About Where We Have Been and Where We Might Be Going. Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-11995152
