Brehaut Group

MisPHIT:  Misinformation Public Health Intervention Tools 

Health misinformation - false or misleading information that runs counter to best available evidence - has impeded public health initiatives for as long as such initiatives have existed, across areas of public health as varied as seat belt use, nutrition, water fluoridation, smoking cessation, use of statins, cancer screening and treatment, and (of course) vaccination. Existing efforts to combat health misinformation have primarily focused on providing people with better information, or helping them to better identify misinformation. Such approaches focus primarily on the information itself. We propose that anti-misinformation interventions should specifically target relevant behaviours, i.e. misinformation-associated health behaviours (MAHBs), and that effective interventions need to more clearly identify, specify, and target the full range of determinants of MAHBs, and not only the information (or misinformation) seen as associated with those behaviours. By framing this problem in terms of the behaviours rather than the (mis)information, we can engage the full range of behavioural theories and methods that have recently transformed implementation science.   

The overall goal of this project is to leverage implementation science theories, tools, and methods to design more effective and ethically informed public health interventions that reduce misinformation-associated health behaviours (MAHBs).

This project will involve:  

1)      Conducting evidence syntheses to document how core concepts from implementation science have informed study of MAHBs to date;
2)      Employing new theory-guided interview approaches to elicit expertise from theory experts across many disciplines that study misinformation, and real-world expertise from decision makers and public health stakeholders involved in designing interventions against it;
3)      Co-developing tools (based on implementation science and real-world expertise) and interventions targeting MAHBs;
4)      Conducting innovative conceptual analysis of ethics challenges posed by behavioural theory-informed misinformation interventions, and developing practical solutions to these challenges to support implementation.

Project Team:

PIs:  Jamie Brehaut, Justin Presseau

Co-Is:  Heather Colquhoun, Ian Graham, Nicola McCleary, Stuart Nicholls, Andrea Patey, Monica Taljaard, Charles Weijer

Collaborators: Bukun Adegbembo, Mindy Goldman, Lanre Tunji-Ajayi

Patient Partners:  Juliette Inglis, Mei Lin Yee

Research Coordinator: Kelly Carroll

Research Associate: Natasha Hudek

PhD Trainee: Rowan Green

Funded by: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)


Publications to Date:
Bang C, Carroll K, Mistry N, Presseau J, Hudek N, Yanikomeroglu S, Brehaut JC. Use of Implementation Science Concepts in the Study of Misinformation: A Scoping Review. Health Educ Behav. 2025 Jun;52(3):340-353.