Look beyond the headline

MedlinePlus recommends asking specific questions when reading news about medical research: whether the study involved people or animals, who took part and how many, its duration, its type and who funded it.

Use those questions to describe the report in front of you. The aim is to collect information you can point to, rather than award the headline a quick “true” or “false” label.

Give each answer a place

Make a five-field card:

  • Participants: people, animals or not stated? If people, how many and who were they?
  • Duration: what length of time does the report describe?
  • Study type: what label does the report use?
  • Funding: who is named as paying for the research?
  • Source trail: what study, report or source does the article link to or name?

Beside each entry, note where you found the answer. Keep the article's wording for a study-type label you do not understand; guessing what that label means adds uncertainty.

Write “not stated in this article” when an answer is missing. That is a precise note about the report you read, not proof that the original researchers omitted the detail.

Work through a reading example

In this invented example, a reader saves a news article that identifies the participants and names a study type, but gives no study length or funding information.

The reader fills only the supported fields and leaves the others marked as missing. If the named source later supplies an answer, they can update that field and record where it came from.

The useful action is separating a documented answer from an assumption.

Keep the limits with the note

Save the article title, link and the date you read it alongside the card. When you return to it, you can see which questions were answered and which remain open.

The card does not establish that a study's findings apply to you. MedlinePlus advises discussing health information with your provider before using it for personal health decisions. If you remain unsure that a social-media claim is trustworthy, leave it unshared while you investigate.