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Public health
Original research
COVID-19 and ‘immune boosting’ on the internet: a content analysis of Google search results
  1. Christen Rachul1,
  2. Alessandro R Marcon2,
  3. Benjamin Collins1,3,
  4. Timothy Caulfield2,4
  1. 1Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
  2. 2Health Law Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  3. 3Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
  4. 4Faculty of Law, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Christen Rachul; christen.rachul{at}umanitoba.ca

Abstract

Objective The spread of misinformation has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic, including topics such as immune boosting to prevent COVID-19. This study explores how immune boosting is portrayed on the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design Content analysis.

Methods We compiled a dataset of 227 webpages from Google searches in Canada and the USA using the phrase ‘boost immunity’ AND ‘coronavirus’ on 1 April 2020. We coded webpages for typology and portrayal of immune boosting and supplements. We recorded mentions of microbiome, whether the webpage was selling or advertising an immune boosting product or service, and suggested strategies for boosting immunity.

Results No significant differences were found between webpages that appeared in the searches in Canada and the USA. The most common types of webpages were from news (40.5%) and commercial (24.7%) websites. The concept of immune boosting was portrayed as beneficial for avoiding COVID-19 in 85.5% of webpages and supplements were portrayed as beneficial in 40% of the webpages, but commercial sites were more likely to have these portrayals. The top immune boosting strategies were vitamin C (34.8%), diet (34.4%), sleep (34.4%), exercise (30.8%) and zinc (26.9%). Less than 10% of the webpages provide any critique of the concept of immune boosting.

Conclusions Pairing evidence-based advice for maintaining one’s health (eg, healthy diet, exercise, sleep) with the phrase immune boosting and strategies lacking in evidence may inadvertently help to legitimise the concept, making it a powerful marketing tool. Results demonstrate how the spread of misinformation is complex and often more subtle than blatant fraudulent claims.

  • health policy
  • immunology
  • public health
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040989

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors CR, ARM and TC conceived of the study. CR compiled the dataset and CR, ARM and BC analysed the data. All authors were involved in interpreting the data, drafting the manuscript, revising the manuscript critically for intellectual content, and approving the final version to be published and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

    • Funding The authors would also like to thank the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Alberta Innovates, the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Tourism, the Government of Alberta, the Government of Canada, Genome Canada and Genome Alberta for their generous support of the following projects: (1) Coronavirus Outbreak: Mapping and Countering Misinformation; (2) Critical Thinking in the Digital Age: Countering Coronavirus Misinformation and (3) Childhood Asthma and the Microbiome - Precision Health for Life: The CHILD Study.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data availability statement Data are available in a public, open access repository. The data set is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12783644.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.