How to find evidence-based health information

The source of the health information you see online is the most important question. How can you tell if it’s a reliable source? Investigate the webpage to get some background on the organization or individual posting the information.

What is the organization’s goal?
Is it to educate or are they selling something? Be more critical of sites selling products.

Who wrote the information? 

News articles, publications, and posts often include the name of the author. Does the author have credentials relevant to the topic? Be skeptical of personal blogs or individual stories. They might be interesting but should not be relied upon when you make health decisions. Each person’s healthcare needs are different.

What type of organization is it?
The “About Us” page or the URL can give you some clues about whether the organization is trustworthy.

.gov is a U.S. government agency

.edu is an educational organization (university, school)

.org is usually a nonprofit (such as a health education and advocacy organization)

.com/.net is usually a business (such as a maker of commercial products, a pharmaceutical company, or in some cases a news or health company)

So you have a list of scientific publications. Now, the difficulty comes in understanding them! This is because most scientific articles are filled with acronyms, specialized wording, and complicated statistical analyses. This makes it tough for anyone who is not a specialist in the field to understand the information fully. But with a little knowledge about the format of scientific papers, you can gain a general understanding of the study outcomes.

Most scientific publications include certain sections:

• Title
• Authors and affiliations
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References

In reviewing your list, look at the titles and only focus on those that include the information you’re seeking. Next, check out the abstract. This is a brief summary of the study and should help you understand what it’s about. Read the introduction, which is easier to understand as it’s a summary of the field covered in the research study. It’s also where most of the acronyms are defined. You’ll need that info to make sense of the rest of the paper. After the introduction, you can jump straight to the discussion or conclusions. Again, these sections are easier to understand and will contain the main points of the study, including comparisons with other studies and identified areas of weakness in the current study. If you need details on how the study was conducted, this is in the methods section. The results section includes the outcome of the statistical analysis and most of the tables and figures used to describe the outcomes. You can find more pointers in this article.

Once you have reviewed a few scientific papers, you may still have questions. This is a good time to discuss your understanding with your healthcare provider. Let your doctor know which publication you have questions about.