ICMR-NIN launches online survey on nutrition-related web search behaviour

Hyderabad: Internet usage has accelerated among Indians, especially among those following Covid-19 appropriate behaviour such as physical distancing, restrictions on gatherings. Now, there are concerns about the misinformation of 'pandemic' spreading through social media which is termed as 'infodemic'.

The Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN) has launched an e-survey to assess the impact of the abundance and overburden of food and nutrition-related information on the web search behaviour, nutrition-related knowledge, attitude and practices as well as real and perceived food scares among the people during different phases of the COVID19 pandemic.

“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.

This study is designed to understand the online information-seeking behaviour of Indian internet users related to food and nutrition during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the impact of the top trending information on food-related topics on the perception, knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP). The survey is available online and NIN solicits all the regular internet users across the country above the age of 18 years to take part in the survey, which takes hardly 10 minutes to complete. It can be accessed at: https://infodemicsurvey.nin.res.in