Raffael Heiss

🚨 Some #NPOs look like independent #healthinformation hubs - but operate as strategic arms of the #F&B industry.

They influence science, public messaging, and policy-makers.

We study 5 cases: ILSI Europe, EUFIC, BNF, FEN, and Austria’s FEH.

worldnutritionjournal.org/index.php/wn...

(c) G. Mondy

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

School Education Needs Change to Bridge Gaps in Health Literacy "Neither age nor grade level were significant predictors of health literacy."School education is meant to equip young people with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in society. But our socie...

📢 New Blog Post

A recent study shows that three-quarters of the German population have inadequate health literacy.

But what role does school education play — and what needs to change?

📖 Read the full post: www.raffaelheiss.com/post/school-...

#HealthLiteracy #HealthEducation #PublicHealth

📢 Spannender Artikel zum Thema #HealthInfluencer – mit Bezug auf unsere Studien und einem Blick auf die Chancen & Risiken.💡

Auch darin: spannende Interviews mit Influencern & Forschern – ich durfte auch ein paar Gedanken beisteuern.

#Medienkompetenz #Gesundheitskommunikation #PublicHealth

📢 New Publication 📢

Alice Binder et al. analyzed TV series and movies named by Austrian kids and their parents, revealing that unhealthy food dominates, and further that characters' nonverbal evaluation of food is prominently linked to nutritional classifications.

👉🏼 doi.org/10.1016/j.jn...

The NIH canceled my research on vaccine hesitancy The decision to end research on vaccine hesitancy is deeply disrespectful of those who have lost or will lose loved ones to vaccine-preventable disease.

The NIH canceled my research on vaccine hesitancy www.statnews.com/2025/03/28/v... via @statnews

"Each year in the United States, approximately 6,000 people die from influenza.

More than 7,000 will die from Covid-19 in 2025.

...an American child died from measles for the first time in a decade."

So it begins: "Email directs NIH staff to identify grants related to ‘fighting misinformation’."
Honestly, I was a bit surprised that earlier lists of forbidden terms didn’t (yet) include “misinformation” & “disinformation.”
Turns out, they had a separate plan for dealing with that kind of research.

Wie erkenne ich 🚩🚩🚩 in den Gesundheitstipps von #Influencern? Unsere Checkliste hilft, fragwürdige Inhalte zu entlarven.
👇👇👇

The weaponization of scientific institutions by an anti-science government…

📢Does school education improve #HealthLiteracy? Our data say NO.

We tested 780 Austrian pupils (9–13) using a performance-based HL test.

❌Result: No improvements w/ grade level (fig1).

⚠️Problem: They increasingly rely on unmoderated sources, but aren’t prepared (fig2).

🔗FULL STUDY: rdcu.be/eb548

Social Media Posts About Medical Tests With Potential for Overdiagnosis This cross-sectional study examines the tone and content of social media posts that discuss popular medical tests with potential for overdiagnosis or overuse.

🚨 New study out!

We coded ~1,000 TikTok & Insta posts on 5 controversial medical tests: 87% hyped benefits, only 15% mentioned harms. 68% had financial ties.
👉 #Overdiagnosis

Study led by @brookenickel.bsky.social & @sydneyhealthlitlab.bsky.social 🌟

Read here👇

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Why We Should Stop Using Mediation Analysis "Imagine that a medical research group were to conduct an experimental test of a new drug for dementia, and use mediation analysis…”

New blog post on #MediationAnalysis (MA), which is widely misunderstood and overused in #CommunicationResearch and #Psychology.

I made mistakes using MA myself, and no one should be blamed. But it's important to discuss flaws, esp. as MA has become so popular.

www.raffaelheiss.com/post/mediation

‘Nicotine Nazis’: the brickbats hurled at scientists researching tobacco’s harms A study highlights how public-health researchers are targeted for focusing on tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods.

Thanks to @nature.com for publishing this article on our recent research into the #intimidation of #publichealth researchers working on tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods.

Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I recently joined the @ejhc.bsky.social as an associate editor. The #EJHC is a great university-led #nonprofit & #nopaywall project, all articles are rigorously peer-reviewed and published #openaccess free of charge. Looking forward to your #healthcom submissions!💪

Link: ejhc.org