For families trying to make decisions about their children’s health, a flood of conflicting health information from AI chatbots, influencers and social media is creating confusion.
The concern led Akron Children’s hospital to study 1,002 caregivers in April to understand how families navigate health information and how that affects decisions about their children’s health. (Ohio caregivers were excluded from the survey to avoid including Akron Children’s own patient population and to avoid introducing potential bias.)
The survey found that 27 percent of caregivers said they had questioned or regretted a healthcare decision, while 20 percent said they had delayed a decision.
Seventy-one percent of the parents said there is more conflicting medical information today than ever before — 63 percent worried about making the wrong healthcare decision for their child.
But it also found that most caregivers still trust their pediatricians and primary care providers, with 90 percent saying they do.
It’s something pediatricians at Akron Children’s hospital were hearing from families during appointments. “It feels like a heavy weight that families carry to try and make the right decision when they’re sort of bombarded with all of these uncertainties,” said Dr. Michael Bigham, chief quality officer and pediatric intensivist at Akron Children’s.
Why did Akron Children’s take on the caregiver study?
Akron Children’s launched Healthy Info, Healthy Kids last year as a way to help families navigate the growing amount of health information they encounter.
“It was driven by the fact that there’s so much sort of misleading, conflicting health information out there, and we were starting to notice that our families and our healthcare providers were struggling with that,” said Dr. Shefali Mahesh, Akron Children’s pediatrician in chief.
The initiative provides evidence-based, science-backed information through the hospital’s website, a monthly Akron Beacon Journal column, social media posts and short videos featuring physicians.
After about a year, Akron Children’s wanted to better understand how caregivers were taking in health information, including information from social media and AI, and how they distinguished those sources from credible medical information. That led to the national caregiver survey.
How do families encounter health information?
Families don’t always have to search for health information to encounter it. Online platforms can continue recommending similar content after someone clicks on a particular type of information, whether the information is accurate or not, Mahesh said.
The information can cover everything from immunizations and treatments to nutrition and safety. Conflicting opinions on the same health topic can reach families as often as weekly, Bigham said.
But the volume of information did not mean families were simply accepting everything they encountered. Instead, they were trying to check and confirm what they found.
“They’re not looking for us to give them yet another piece of data or another piece of evidence,” Mahesh said. “They’re looking to us to say, like, how do I make sense of this?”
The weight of conflicting information
Sixty-one percent of caregivers said they are confused about who to trust for medical information, while 54 percent said conflicting information causes them to second-guess their instincts as caregivers.
That uncertainty can make caregivers hesitant to make a decision because they fear making the wrong one. Even after making a decision, parents may encounter information that contradicts it, leaving them wondering whether they had all the information they needed at the time, Mahesh said.
“It was driven by the fact that there’s so much sort of misleading, conflicting health information out there, and we were starting to notice that our families and our healthcare providers were struggling with that,” said Dr. Shefali Mahesh, Akron Children’s pediatrician in chief. (Photo courtesy of Akron Children’s hospital)
“I look at that from the eyes of a caregiver and think every single caregiver is trying to do the same thing,” she said.
Some health information should prompt parents to pause and look more closely.
Claims designed to make someone particularly excited or riled up, promises of a simple or “magical” cure, or information tied to selling a product are reasons to check the information against other sources, Mahesh said.
That does not necessarily mean the information is wrong. Parents who want to do their own research should look for credible sources and compare what they find before making a decision, the Akron Children’s physicians said.
“Trust but verify,” Bigham said. Pediatricians and healthcare systems can help families work through questions and determine whether information applies to their child’s situation.
Timely responses matter, Mahesh said. When parents reach out with concerns, unanswered questions can allow doubt to grow into fear. She encourages parents to clearly explain what they have found and ask their healthcare provider whether it applies to their child.
Preserving trust in physicians, hospitals
The volume of conflicting information can introduce uncertainty into healthcare decisions, including decisions where families may not have expected to feel uncertain in the first place, Bigham said.
That puts pediatricians and children’s hospitals in an important position. The trust families place in them needs to be preserved, he said.
“We wouldn’t ever want to lose that trust by getting polarizing,” Bigham said. “But really just leading with the truth.”
The information families encounter will continue to change, Bigham said. What they are sorting through today may look different six months or a year from now, creating what he described as a “continuous revolving door of conflicting information.”
Akron Children’s plans to keep Healthy Info, Healthy Kids focused on emerging topics and the questions families are hearing so it can provide factual information as those conversations change.
