A new report from the London School of Hygiene and Tropcal Medicine:
1 in 5 young people in UK regret health decision based on misinformation
https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2026/1-5-young-people-uk-regret-...
'A fifth of 18-34-year-olds in the UK have made a health decision based on false or misleading information they later regretted, according to a new London School of Hygiene and Tropcal Medicine report. The findings are set out in Health Misinformation: Public Perceptions of Threat to the UK, which is based on a survey of 2,110 UK adults. The report also found over a third of those aged 18-24 said they knew someone who has suffered serious harm as a result of making a health decision based on false or misleading information...
'Professor Liam Smeeth, the Director of LSHTM, said: “With a fifth of UK adults saying they have made a health decision they regret based on health misinformation, rising to a third of those aged under 34, and a fifth saying they know someone who has suffered serious harm as a result of health misinformation this is a problem that we can no longer ignore."'
[The LSHTM endorses the HIFA vision: a world where every person will have access to the healthcare information they need to protect their health and the health of others, and will be protected from misinformation. https://www.hifa.org/support/supporting-organisations/london-school-hygi... ]
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org