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. 2021 Apr 13:10:287.
doi: 10.12688/f1000research.51541.1. eCollection 2021.

Other ways of communicating the pandemic - memes and stickers against COVID-19: a systematic review

Jeel Moya-Salazar  1   2 , Betsy Cañari  2 , Lucía Gomez-Saenz  2 , Hans Contreras-Pulache  2
Affiliations

Other ways of communicating the pandemic - memes and stickers against COVID-19: a systematic review

Jeel Moya-Salazar et al. F1000Res. .

Abstract

Background: In the midst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there are many ways to communicate hygiene measures, such as memes and stickers that are widely used on social networks. We carried out a systematic review in order to determine the impact of stickers and memes as tools to face the COVID-19 pandemic, following the PRISMA guide. Methods: The search was carried out in scientific databases (MEDLINE / PubMed, ScientiDirect, Scielo, LILACS, and Latindex), and in public pre-publication servers (bioRxiv, SocArXiv, medRxiv and Preprints). The publications were identified using the terms (((meme) OR (sticker)) AND ((COVID-19) OR (SARS-COV-2)) AND (WhatsApp)) and the corresponding translations for Spanish and Portuguese. Results: In the initial search, 8434 studies were obtained, 7749 in Preprints, 446 in SocArXiv, 145 in ScientDirect, 82 in medRxiv, and 12 in PubMed. No studies were found in LILACS, Latindex, Scielo, or bioRxiv. Of the 51 studies included as eligible, all were eliminated for not meeting the study inclusion criteria. The majority (40 studies) were eliminated as studies were publications related to the social aspects related to COVID-19, but did not develop an analysis of stickers or memes. Conclusions: No studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria related to the role of stickers and memes as tools to face the COVID-19 pandemic. More studies are needed to estimate its role as a means of communication in health.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cell Phone Use; Health Promotion; SARS-CoV-2; Smartphone; eHealth Strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing interests were disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. “Independent” stickers used in WhatsApp as information tools on hand washing.
[Has been reproduced respecting the intellectual property rights of WhatsApp sticker users].
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Together at home: WhatsApp stickers co created with the World Health Organization in the face of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
[Has been reproduced respecting the intellectual property rights of the World Health Organization’ WhatsApp stickers].
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
PRISMA flow chart for the selection of studies on stickers and memes against COVID-19.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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