Infoxication in health. Health information overload on the Internet and the risk of important information becoming invisible

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to: 1) raise awareness of the volume of quality health information on the Internet; 2) explore perceptions of information professionals with regard to the use of qualified sources for health decision-making; and 3) make recommendations that facilitate strengthening health worker capacities and institutional competencies related to digital literacy. METODOS: Foi realizado estudo transversal descritivo nao experimental em uma amostra nao probabilistica com 32 profissionais da informacao de nove paises. Foi coletada informacao da internet sobre o volume de conteudos existentes sobre ferramentas de internet, redes sociais e fontes de informacao em saude. Foram realizadas buscas em ingles e espanhol utilizando as palavras-chave Ebola, Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, Safe food, Health equity, Safe sex, e Obesity. E foi obtida informacao sobre a oferta de cursos de formacao em alfabetizacao digital, gestao da informacao e outros topicos relacionados. RESULTS: Selecting only four diseases with a high impact on public health in May 2016 and averaging minimum review time for each information product, it would take more than 50 years without sleeping to consult everything that is published online about dengue, Zika, Ebola, and chikungunya. CONCLUSION: We conclude that public health would benefit from: health institutions implementing formal knowledge management strategies; academic health sciences institutions incorporating formal digital literacy programs; and having health workers who are professionally responsible and functional in the information society.