Sixty-one percent of physicians said their patients were influenced by medical misinformation or disinformation a moderate amount or a great deal of the time over the past year, a recent Physicians Foundation survey found.
The nonprofit research group surveyed 1,002 physicians in May about their experience with patients bringing misinformation or disinformation into the exam room.
Here are six more findings:
1. Of rural physicians, 38% reported encountering “a great deal” of misinformation or disinformation from their patients, compared to 21% of suburban physicians and 25% of urban physicians.
2. The majority (86%) of physicians said the incidence of medical misinformation and disinformation among patients has increased in the past five years.
3. Half of physicians said misinformation and disinformation have increased significantly in the past five years.
4. More than half (57%) of physicians said they believed misinformation and disinformation had at least a moderate impact on their ability to provide quality care to patients.
5. Fifty percent said they felt high confidence in being able to identify and correct falsehoods during patient appointments, while 10% said they lacked the tools or support to do so.
6. Four out of 10 physicians said they do not feel at all confident that their patients know how to access reliable, evidence-based health information online. Among those, 54% were rural physicians, 37% suburban physicians and 41% urban physicians.
