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Effect of Health Education on Recognition of Health Misinformation among University Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Health misinformation has become an important public health concern among university students in Nigeria as students increasingly obtain health-related information through social media, online platforms, messaging applications, blogs, informal networks, and other digital sources. Exposure to inaccurate, misleading, exaggerated, or unsupported health claims may influence students' understanding of diseases, medicines, vaccines, nutrition, sexual health, mental health, and other health-related issues. Students who have difficulty distinguishing credible health information from misinformation may be more likely to accept or share inaccurate claims and may make inappropriate health decisions. Health education provides an opportunity to strengthen students' health literacy, critical evaluation skills, and ability to identify reliable health information sources. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of health education on recognition of health misinformation among university students in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and Health Literacy Framework. The Health Belief Model explains how students' perceptions of health risks, perceived benefits of obtaining accurate information, perceived barriers to evaluating health claims, self-efficacy, and cues to action may influence their ability to recognize misinformation. Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes observational learning, social influence, self-efficacy, reinforcement, and environmental factors in shaping students' information-seeking and evaluation behaviours. The Health Literacy Framework emphasizes students' ability to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information appropriately when making health-related decisions. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how health education may influence recognition of health misinformation among university students in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18 years and above enrolled in selected public and private universities across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, universities, faculties or departments, levels of study, and eligible students. Health education will be assessed using indicators such as exposure to health-literacy education sessions, frequency and duration of education, instruction on evaluating online health claims, identification of credible health-information sources, recognition of misleading headlines, evaluation of evidence and references, identification of false or exaggerated health claims, awareness of commercial and promotional content, verification of information before sharing, use of reputable health institutions and professionals as information sources, and appropriate use of fact-checking resources. Recognition of health misinformation will be assessed using indicators such as students' ability to distinguish accurate health claims from false or misleading claims, identify unsupported medical recommendations, recognize exaggerated claims about treatments or cures, identify misleading vaccine or disease information, assess the credibility of online health sources, identify warning signs of misinformation, verify health claims using reliable sources, and avoid sharing unverified health information. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized health-literacy assessment tools, scenario-based misinformation-recognition questions, digital health-information evaluation tasks, and pre-test and post-test assessments where a quasi-experimental intervention is adopted. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, digital-media use, sources of health information, exposure to health education, health-literacy levels, and misinformation-recognition ability. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, paired and independent t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the effect of health education on recognition of health misinformation. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, misinformation-recognition scores before and after the educational intervention may be compared with those of a comparison group to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that health education has a significant positive effect on recognition of health misinformation among university students in Nigeria. Students exposed to structured, evidence-based, practical, and sustained health-literacy education are expected to demonstrate greater ability to identify inaccurate and misleading health claims than students without comparable exposure. Education may improve students' ability to evaluate the credibility of health-information sources, examine supporting evidence, identify exaggerated or unsupported claims, distinguish professional health information from promotional content, and verify information before accepting or sharing it. Scenario-based activities may strengthen students' ability to recognize misinformation encountered through social media and messaging platforms. Education may also encourage students to consult credible healthcare professionals and recognized public health institutions when uncertain about health claims. However, high exposure to social-media content, peer influence, confirmation bias, repeated exposure to misinformation, low digital health literacy, emotionally appealing content, and rapid circulation of unverified information may reduce the effectiveness of education alone. The study therefore expects accessible, practical, evidence-based, and sustained health-literacy education to contribute significantly to improved recognition of health misinformation among university students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on health misinformation, health literacy, digital health communication, health education, information evaluation, social media and health, university student health, public health communication, and preventive healthcare in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, universities, university health centres, healthcare professionals, public health organizations, digital-health programmes, student organizations, media and communication practitioners, development partners, and policymakers regarding strategies for improving students' ability to identify and respond to health misinformation. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating health-literacy education into university health programmes, teaching students how to evaluate online health claims, strengthening awareness of credible health-information sources, promoting responsible health-information sharing, improving digital health communication, and developing sustainable interventions that reduce the influence of health misinformation among university students across Nigeria.

Keywords: Health education, health misinformation, misinformation recognition, health literacy, university students, digital health, social media, health information, information evaluation, health communication, Nigeria, public health.