• Emily Carletto, Kathryn A Carson, Hsin-Chieh Yeh, Katherine Dietz, Nakiya Showell, Jill A Marsteller, and Lisa A Cooper.
• Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 2024 East Monument Street, Suite 2-500, Baltimore, MD, 21287, USA.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2024 Jun 28.

BackgroundPersonal characteristics may be associated with believing misinformation and not believing in best practices to protect oneself from COVID-19.ObjectiveTo examine the associations of a person's age, race/ethnicity, education, residence, health literacy, medical mistrust level, and sources of health-related information with their COVID-19 health and conspiracy myth beliefs.DesignWe surveyed adults with hypertension in Maryland and Pennsylvania between August 2020 and March 2021. Incorrect responses were summed for eight health (mean = 0.68; range 0-5) and two conspiracy (mean = 0.92; range 0-2) COVID-19 questions. Higher scores indicated more incorrect responses. Statistical analyses included two-sample t-tests, Spearman's correlation, and log binomial regression.ParticipantsIn total, 561 primary care patients (mean age = 62.3 years, 60.2% female, 46.0% Black, 10.2% Hispanic, 28.2% with a Bachelor's degree or higher, 42.8% with annual household income less than $60,000) with a diagnosis of hypertension and at least one of five commonly associated conditions.Main MeasuresSociodemographic characteristics, health literacy, medical mistrust level, source of health-related information, and COVID-19 conspiracy and health myth beliefs.Key ResultsIn multivariable analyses, participants who did not get information from medical professional sources (prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.28; 95% CI = 1.06-1.55), had less than a bachelor's degree (PR = 1.49; 95% CI = 1.12-1.99), were less confident filling out medical forms (PR = 1.24; 95% CI = 1.02-1.50), and had higher medical mistrust (PR = 1.34; 95% CI = 1.05-1.69) were more likely to believe any health myths. Participants who had less than a bachelor's degree (PR = 1.22; 95% CI = 1.02-1.45), were less confident filling out medical forms (PR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.09-1.34), and had higher medical mistrust (PR = 1.72; 95% CI = 1.43-2.06) were more likely to believe any conspiracy myths.ConclusionsLower educational attainment and health literacy, greater medical mistrust, and certain sources of health information are associated with misinformed COVID-19 beliefs. Programs addressing misinformation should focus on groups affected by these social determinants of health by encouraging reliance on scientific sources.© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society of General Internal Medicine.

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