ICMR-NIN launches online survey to assess nutrition-related misinformation on web

Representational Image (Credit: Pixabay)

Hyderabad: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in partnership with National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) has launched an online survey to assess nutrition-related misinformation circulating on the internet.

The study aims to understand the impact of the abundant information on food and nutrition floating on the web, nutrition-related knowledge, attitude and practices as well as real and perceived food scares among the people during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The internet usage has accelerated among Indians, especially among those following COVID-19 appropriate behaviour such as physical distancing, restrictions on gatherings and partial or full for various information related to food especially,” ICMR-NIN said in a statement.

“Now, there are concerns about the epidemic of misinformation spreading through social media which is termed as ‘infodemic’,” it added.

“In India, while internet and social media are being used extensively as the means of risk communication by the governments, health agencies, media houses and other stakeholders, quite often misinformation and rumours from unreliable sources have been making their way through them creating confusions, panic and concern among common people,” said Dr Hemalatha R, Director, ICMR-NIN.

The study is designed to understand the online information seeking behaviour of Indian internet users related to food and nutrition and the impact of the top trending information on food-related topics on the perception, knowledge, attitude and practices.

The survey is available online on infodemicsurvey.nin.res.in internet users across the country above the age of 18 years.