I was interested to see this white paper by Femmes de Sante, with thanks to Vismita Gupta-Smith (WHO).
The publication is available here: https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/08842872-7bc2-43f8-ad1a-c062ecec...
The focus of the work is women in France, but many of the findgins are likely relevant worldwide.
A presentation was given by Catherine Bertrand-Ferrandis at a WHO webinar recently. A few extracts below.
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Women are uniquely vulnerable to health misinformation due to a confluence of specific information needs, their pivotal role in family health management, and significant barriers in medical communication.
Limited data on women's health and specific training for health professionals, coupled with shorter consultation times, push women towards unverified online sources. The medical information asymmetry can foster rumours and distrust.
Algorithms favour emotional, unscientific content. The rise of peer support can be positive as it can be a platform for misinformation spread.
Commercial Interests & "Wellness"
The booming £6.3 trillion wellness market often uses medical vocabulary to legitimise unvalidated practices, exploiting unmet health needs. This blurs scientific rigour and places a disproportionate burden of "self-optimisation" on women.
"The first step is to raise awareness among all stakeholders to the issue of misinformation in women's health."
Objective: To equip every citizen with the tools to make informed, autonomous choices about health information —reducing dependence on unverified sources.
Objective: To embed reliable, validated informationinto women's daily lives and healthcare pathways —making trusted knowledge the default, not the exception, at every point of contact with the health system.
Objective: To amplify credible voices, protect their independence, and ensure that trusted communicators are not drowned out by commercial or algorithmic noise
Objective: To hold platforms legally and ethically accountable for the health content they amplify, and to protect the professionals and citizens who risk their reputation to defend factual information.
Objective: To protect the public —especially women —from commercial content disguised as medical guidance, and to restore the credibility of science-based health communication.
Objective: To create a collective, sustainable dynamic around health information that is accessible, verified and supportive for every woman in France.
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HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org