European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

THE EXTENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES ON COVID-19 HEALTH-RELATED MISINFORMATION AND THE VALIDATION ABILITY AMONG SELECTED RESIDENTS IN BRGY. LUCIANO, TRECE MARTIRES CITY, CAVITE

Antonio A.P., Canson C., Mangalili A.J., Marino L., Ontiveros J., Ricardo R-J., Romeroso T.M.*, Andal M., Rubenicia A.M., and Santiago C.

ABSTRACT

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared last 2020 that along with the COVID-19 outbreak, an “infodemic” that is mostly misinformation regarding COVID-19 is continuously spreading mostly on online platforms. These COVID-19 misinformation are said to have harmful effects on the public (WHO, 2020). Thus, the study was conducted to determine the extent of individual responses on COVID-19 health-related misinformation and on the validation ability. The study utilized descriptive correlational design to describe the relationships of and correlate the research variables which are COVID-19 health-related misinformation, individual responses, and validation ability. Through convenience sampling, 363 respondents—who are in the age bracket of 20-59 years old and have access to the internet—were selected from Brgy. Luciano, Trece Martires City, Cavite. The data was gathered through the distribution of survey questionnaires. Statistical treatments including simple linear regression were performed for data analysis. The study found out that COVID- 19 health-related misinformation and individual responses have a direct relationship (r2 = 0.160, P-value < 0.05) and that validation ability and individual responses have an inverse relationship (r2 = 0.047, P-value < 0.05). This concludes that encountering misinformation leads to inadvisable responses and that performing proper validation measures can prevent one from subscribing to misinformation.

Keywords: COVID-19, Misinformation, Validation Ability, Responses, Correlational.