Training Interventions to Strengthen Infodemic Management and Behavioural Intelligence Capacities Among Public Health Professionals: A Scoping Review Protocol

This scoping review examines training interventions designed to strengthen infodemic management and behavioural intelligence capacities among public health professionals globally between 2014 and 2025. The review aims to systematically map the existing evidence base on workforce development initiatives targeting competencies such as social listening, rumor tracking, risk communication, behavioural insights application, and digital health misinformation response. Infodemic management has emerged as a critical component of public health emergency preparedness, particularly following the Ebola outbreak and the COVID-19 pandemic. Concurrently, behavioural intelligence approaches have been increasingly integrated into public health systems to inform evidence-based communication and intervention strategies. Despite growing institutional adoption of these functions within Ministries of Health, National Public Health Institutes, and international health agencies, there remains limited consolidated evidence describing how public health professionals are trained in these domains, the characteristics of such trainings, and how their effectiveness is evaluated. Using established scoping review methodologies aligned with the Arksey and O’Malley framework, the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidance, and PRISMA-ScR reporting standards, this review will identify and map relevant studies across multiple bibliographic databases and grey literature sources. The review will examine training characteristics (content, duration, delivery mode, target population), evaluation approaches, reported outcomes, and geographic distribution. No meta-analysis will be conducted; findings will be synthesized descriptively through tabular mapping and thematic analysis. The expected outcomes of this review include: (1) a comprehensive mapping of existing training models in infodemic management and behavioural intelligence; (2) identification of methodological and measurement gaps in training evaluation; and (3) evidence-informed recommendations to guide future workforce development, curriculum design, and research in this emerging field. The findings are intended to inform public health institutions, policymakers, academic programs, and global health agencies working to strengthen institutional capacity for managing information disorders and behavioural determinants of health.