{"id":51766,"date":"2025-01-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=51766"},"modified":"2025-01-25T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T11:00:00","slug":"new-research-shows-the-problem-of-health-misinformation-in-canada-is-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=51766","title":{"rendered":"New research shows the problem of health misinformation in Canada is growing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;188&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;127&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The following is a story from polling data as supplied by Abacus Data<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>OTTAWA, ONT.:<\/strong> More Canadians are encountering health misinformation, according to a new survey, and the trend is having direct consequences on health outcomes.<br><br>The <a href=\"https:\/\/digitallibrary.cma.ca\/link\/digitallibrary761\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2025 Health and Media Tracking Survey Opens in a new window<\/a>, commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and delivered by Abacus Data, asked respondents to spot misinformation among several health-related statements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It found that 43% of Canadians are highly susceptible to believing misinformation, while another 35% are moderately susceptible.<br><br>The repercussions of misinformation are even more concerning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;34&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;7&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey points to a direct link between misinformation and negative health outcomes \u2013 and it\u2019s a growing problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this year\u2019s survey, more than one-third of Canadians (35%) say they avoided effective health treatments due to false information, up six percentage points from 2024.<br><br>An increasing number of Canadians (43%) also say they are experiencing mental distress or increased anxiety due to misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Health misinformation has real consequences&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>37% of Canadians say poor access to health care and information has led them to trying medical advice found online&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>31% have taken medical advice found online instead of advice received from a medical professional&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>23% have had an adverse reaction or negative health impact from following health advice found online&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;31&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;92&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trust in physicians<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Canadians continue to place the highest trust in physicians and other health care professionals to provide quality health information. Year-over-year trust in physicians remains stable at 80%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey confirms a majority of Canadians report that seeing trusted health information leaves them better informed and equipped to counter rising misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How the CMA is working to combat health misinformation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This year\u2019s survey found that an increasing number of Canadians (40%, up 3% from 2024) believe health associations and groups representing health professionals are among the best positioned to provide protection from health misinformation, alongside governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the CMA is doing just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;126&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;148&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The CMA is committed to supporting improvements in the quality and quantity of accurate and accessible health and health system information in Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That includes the commitment to annual tracking research, providing stable funding for health journalism and supporting medical advocates and experts who share credible information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The CMA is also helping Canadians make sense of key issues in health care with initiatives such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cma.ca\/healthcare-for-real\">Healthcare For Real<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Abacus\/CMA survey was conducted online with 3,727 Canadians (including an oversample of Gen Z and French respondents) from Nov. 12\u201319, 2024, in both official languages. The margin of error is +\/- 1.96%, 19 times out of 20.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;126&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;230&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;188&#8243;] [adrotate banner=&#8221;127&#8243;] The following is a story from polling data as supplied by Abacus Data OTTAWA, ONT.: More Canadians are encountering health misinformation, according to a new survey, and the trend is having direct consequences on health outcomes. The 2025 Health and Media Tracking Survey Opens in a new window, commissioned by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[7673,1923,196,2,7674,121,48],"class_list":["post-51766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-abacus-data","tag-canada","tag-east-hants","tag-fall-river","tag-health-misinformation","tag-hrm","tag-n-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}