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Summary
It seems to happen almost every day - you hear about the results of a new medical research study. Sometimes the results of one study seem to disagree with the results of another study.
It's important to be critical when reading or listening to reports of new medical findings. Some questions that can help you evaluate health information include:
- Was the study in animals or people?
- Does the study include people like you?
- How big was the study?
- Was it a randomized controlled clinical trial?
- Where was the research done?
- If a new treatment was being tested, were there side effects?
- Who paid for the research?
- Who is reporting the results?
NIH: National Institutes of Health
Related Issues
- Placebo Effect (American Academy of Neurology) - PDF
Videos and Tutorials
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Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine
(National Library of Medicine)
Statistics and Research
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Research Organisms
(National Institute of General Medical Sciences)
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Different domains of dengue research in the Philippines: A systematic review...
- Article: The impact of a digital platform on migraine patient-centered outcome research....
- Article: Willing But Not Quite Ready: Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of...
- Understanding Medical Research -- see more articles
Reference Desk
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Findings
(National Institute of General Medical Sciences)
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Glossary of Common Site Terms
(National Institutes of Health)
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Some Common Abbreviations
(National Library of Medicine)
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Word Parts and What They Mean
(National Library of Medicine)
Teenagers
- Figuring Out Health News (Nemours Foundation)