Health in the Media
Today, I spent some time on Twitter, sifting through the vast amount of medical information, shortened into only a few characters at a time, spouting information and misinformation about coronavirus, vaccination, weight loss, health and wellness. I encountered many profiles with \”MD\” after their name, challenging the pandemic response as \”political\” and using the hashtag #factsnotfear.
I am not here to contest any of the profiles on Twitter, or critique the information being shared by health experts. Rather, I want to challenge each of you to think about what you\’re reading when it comes to your health by using the same critical thinking that is taught to medical and science students early in our careers.
When you read something like, \”Avoiding this food can reduce your risk of cancer\”, you may think to yourself, great, let\’s do it.
I want to challenge you to think to yourself, who is this article talking to? Who was involved in the study, are they the same age, sex, demographic as myself?
If the study says you get a 50% reduction in your cancer risk– ask yourself, 50% reduction in what number? If your cancer risk was 1 in 100 000 and now is 0.5 in 100 000, that is taking a very small chance and reducing it to an even smaller number. Is that change important enough to you to want to make a change in your lifestyle, or diet? Or to want to take a medication on a daily basis.
Who is writing the study and what do they have the potential to gain? Bias can come from being funded by a pharmaceutical organization, studying a population that is too healthy, too sick, too rich, too educated, and so on- making the results not applicable to the general population. Are they an expert in their field, and do other experts agree with the information being shared?
It is hard to follow a hashtag like #factsnotfear, when even the facts being shared by medical experts do not agree with each other. I want to challenge you to read not only the headlines, and follow experts aligning with your views, but challenge yourself to look beyond the post/tweet/headline to really ask yourself if this aligns with what is likely to be true, written by an expert in the field, and can be reproduced and supported by other experts as well.
Interested in learning more about critically evaluating social media health info?
👉This article by the American Cancer Society dispels myths and facts about Cancer Health News:
👉This article from Common Sense Education, provides a lesson plan for grade 8-12 with a great introduction to critically evaluating medical news.
Cheers to this challenge!
Dr. Lorraine Sharp 