title: Conflicting health information: a critical research need.
abstract: Conflicting health information is increasing in amount and visibility, as evidenced most recently by the controversy surrounding the risks and benefits of childhood vaccinations. The mechanisms through which conflicting information affects individuals are poorly understood; thus, we are unprepared to help people process conflicting information when making important health decisions. In this viewpoint article, we describe this problem, summarize insights from the existing literature on the prevalence and effects of conflicting health information, and identify important knowledge gaps. We propose a working definition of conflicting health information and describe a conceptual typology to guide future research in this area. The typology classifies conflicting information according to four fundamental dimensions: the substantive issue under conflict, the number of conflicting sources (multiplicity), the degree of evidence heterogeneity and the degree of temporal inconsistency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Asheville, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Delesha M
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2025-8140
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Asheville, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Lorie L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Geryk
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Annie T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Rebekah H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Nagler
authors.affiliation: Decision Research, Oregon Health & Science, University Portland, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Dieckmann
authors.affiliation: Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, Maine Medical Center, Portland, ME, USA.|Tufts University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Paul K J
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D003657:Decision Making; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media
keywords: conflicting information; decision-making; health