Archives of Academic Emergency Medicine. 2020; 8(1): e30 LE T T E R TO ED I TO R Information Diet in Covid-19 Crisis; a Commentary Hasan Ashrafi-rizi1∗, Zahra Kazempour2 1. Associate Professor, Medical Library and Information Science Department, Health Information Technology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. 2. Library and Information Science Department, Faculty of Media, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. Received: March 2020; Accepted: March 2020; Published online: 22 March 2020 Cite this article as: Ashrafi-rizi H, Kazempour Z. Information Diet in Covid-19 Crisis; a Commentary. Arch Acad Emerg Med. 2020; 8(1): e30. 1. Introduction By the beginning of COVID-19 crisis in China in late 2019, and its spread throughout the world in early 2020, countries around the world experienced numerous problems (1).The outbreak of the new Coronavirus started in Wuhan, and this third epidemic of Coronaviruses expanded to the middle east promptly. . Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed its concerns about the Coronavirus crisis (2). This crisis caused production and publication of large amounts of valid and invalid information, eventually leading to in- formation obesity phenomenon. Information obesity can have many negative consequences on the general popula- tion, causing major problems for governments, especially if the amount of invalid information is too large. It is worth to mention that however almost impossible, controlling and monitoring media is a massive challenge for different govern- ments. Hence, individuals should protect themselves against unreliable information, and pursue an authentic "informa- tion diet". In the present study, authors have explained and interpreted the concept of the information diet, proposed by Johnson, based on scientific evidence, observation of media news and the social media environment, to help maintain the use of valid information in facing the new Coronavirus crisis. 2. Information Diet in crisis condition Due to the large amount of information production and pub- lication during the current Coronavirus crisis, serious con- cerns have been raised over people’s excessive information consuming. "If information consumption grows, it can cause a loss of tranquility, confusion and can concern the human mind, rather than being a facilitator of life. Therefore, as hu- ∗Corresponding Author: Hasan Ashrafi-rizi; Medical Library and Informa- tion Science Department, Health Information Technology Research Cen- ter, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. Email: has- sanashrafi@mng.mui.ac.ir, Tel: +989132365178. mans respect the limits about use of water, food, and air, they must also rationally limit their consumption of information; otherwise they will encounter phenomena known as the in- formation obesity, and the information diet will be a ratio- nal solution to this phenomenon" (3). The concept of In- formation Diet was introduced by Clay Johnson for the first time. He believes consumers should take responsibility for the type of information they consume, likewise the rational consumption of food. He also argues that there must be a sustainable news movement, like a sustainable food move- ment that has already started in the US. In other words, peo- ple and even governments are not capable of dealing with the media to a great extent, but people can create their own in- formation diets, like food diet. Therefore, information con- sumers are advised to consume information in a limited way. However, they must demand complete and credible news, not news that is based on emotional content and full of ad- vertisements" (4). In the present Coronavirus crisis, some people spend most of their time studying related informa- tion regarding Covid-19 in written and virtual media; Mean- while, they are unwilling to spend time exercising at home, talking to their families, playing with their children or doing other useful tasks such as studying, watching movies and so on. To seriously address these problems in the Coronavirus crisis, not only people must have optimum consumption of appropriate information, but also consuming information should comply with specific terms and conditions. For ex- ample, children should not be exposed to the news related to the Coronavirus, because this information increases anx- iety and causes other psychological problems among them. The elderly is also vulnerable to the spread of information, and should be provided with reliable and limited informa- tion, and they should not be given the ongoing news. On the other hand, individuals should be able to distinguish be- tween high quality and poor quality information, since much of the information regarding Covid-19 is invalid and is pro- duced and published for economic, political, social, and in general profitable purposes (disinformation). Nowadays, in- This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0). Downloaded from: http://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/aaem H. Ashrafi-rizi and Z. Kazempour 2 formation is being provided every day, and by contemplating on and reviewing the publication of statistics related to the Coronavirus crisis on websites, blogs, social media, televi- sion and satellite channels etc., it can be understood that the overload of information has already occurred. Hence, pro- viding people with all kinds of health literature is the only option. Although people may not have the ability to con- trol the production and supply of the information nowadays, each of them must control the extent and type of the infor- mation which they consume. Therefore, in order to achieve a comprehensive information diet in societies, people need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills of health in- formation literacy, media health literacy, media literacy and health literacy. Currently these trainings can only be deliv- ered through the mass media. Delivering these skills requires specific knowledge and skills which health information pro- fessionals (medical librarians) poses, and they can train other people in the society through mass media relying on their abilities. 3. Conclusion Governments need to adopt appropriate policies and plans for managing public opinions in the times of crisis, such as the new Coronavirus crisis. The acquisition of "information evaluating skills" by people will be a prerequisite for adher- ing to the correct information diet, and recommending the information diet as one of the essential strategies in reducing the level of public health anxiety should be considered by health practitioners in countries such as Iran. It should be noted that anxiety and confusion, as well as an increase in people’s physical and mental illnesses, including health anxieties and sometimes cyberchondria, are among the negative consequences of not adhering to information diet and consuming more than needed health information. In cyberchondria, an individual searches for a great deal of information, because of inconsistent information and un- certainty about its validity , which in turn will increase one’s anxiety and stress and causes information obesity (5). This phenomenon would be one of the negative consequences of not adhering to the information diet in the current Coron- avirus crisis. In general, "health media literacy" and public education through mass media are the best options for controlling and monitoring people’s information exposure in the current crisis. Certainly, all of the countries need tranquility after overcoming the Coronavirus crisis, which will be achieved in the light of people’s adherence to the information diet during and after the crisis. 4. Declarations 4.1. Acknowledgements Authors wish to thank the staffs of Health Information Tech- nology Research Center, University of Medical Sciences, Isfa- han, Iran. 4.2. Author’s contribution H. A. conceived the original idea, designed the scenarios and collected the data H. A. and H. A., Z. K: carried out the analysis of data, approved the final version that was submitted, revised it, H. A., Z. K: drafted the manuscript. . A. and Z. K met the criteria of authorship based on the rec- ommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Authors ORCIDs Hasan Ashrafi-rizi: 0000-0001-6052-2087 Zahra Kazempour: 0000-0001-6834-2814 4.3. Conflict of interest The authors have declared that no competing interests exist 4.4. Funding and support This research resulted from an independent research without financial support. References 1. Ashrafi-rizi H, Kazempour Z. Information Typology in Coronavirus (COVID-19) Crisis; a Commentary. Archives of Academic Emergency Medicine.8(1):19. 2. Alavi-Moghaddam M. A Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak from Wuhan City in China, Rapid Need for Emergency Departments Preparedness and Response; a Letter to Editor. A Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Out- break from Wuhan City in China, Rapid Need for Emer- gency Departments Preparedness and Response; a Letter to Editor. 2020;8(1):1-2. 3. Keshavarz H. Information Seeking: from information needs to information credibility. Tehran: Ketabdar Pub- lishing; 2015. 4. Johnson C. The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption. USA: O’Reilly Media; 2012. 5. McMullan RD, Berle D, Arnaez S, Starcevic V. The relation- ships between health anxiety, online health information seeking, and cyberchondria: Systematic review and meta- analysis. Journal of affective disorders. 2019;245:270-8. This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0). Downloaded from: http://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/aaem Introduction Information Diet in crisis condition Conclusion Declarations References