The NoRumourHealth project launches health disinformation workshops for older people

ANA SERRA// Within the framework of the NoRumourHealth project, the ScienceFlows research group together with the FyG consultancy has launched a series of workshops aimed at those over 65 years of age. The objective of these workshops is to offer training to learn how to distinguish health hoaxes from evidence-based information. As various studies have pointed out, the spread of hoaxes can pose a threat to public health. In addition, the sector of the population most likely to share fake news is that of those over 65 years of age. In fact, this population group was the one that shared on average up to seven times more content from fake domains than the younger population according to research carried out by the European Research Council.

The mobile APP

In addition to the training modules launched last February, the project has created the NoRumourHealth application, which contains information on the most frequent health hoaxes. The information is organised thematically, allows searching by keywords and also includes a game to test users’ knowledge.

A digital co-creation project

The objective of the last phase of the project that has recently started is precisely to guarantee that the tools developed respond to the needs of their end users. Therefore, in each of the sessions, the participants will download the beta version of the NoRumourHealth application to their mobile devices. In order to ensure its ease of use, a discussion space will be opened in which participants can use it and provide their suggestions to improve its content, functions and design.

The workshops are free, but for organisational reasons it is necessary to register in advance through the link bit.ly/tallerValencia

Translation: Amaia Crespo