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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
- Be a Citizen Scientist: Help Researchers Solve Puzzling Problems (National Institutes of Health) Also in Spanish
Videos and Tutorials
- Understanding Medical Words: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine (National Library of Medicine)
Statistics and Research
- Amazing Organisms and the Lessons They Can Teach Us (National Institute of General Medical Sciences)
Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)
- Article: Effect of an Education Intervention on Nursing Students' Knowledge of and...
- Article: Considering Sex as a Variable at a Research University: Knowledge, Attitudes,...
- Article: Standardized screening of cognitive and affective tendencies in persons with low...
- Understanding Medical Research -- see more articles
Reference Desk
- ClinicalTrials.gov Glossary Terms (National Institutes of Health)
- Some Common Abbreviations (National Library of Medicine)
- Word Parts and What They Mean (National Library of Medicine)