Understanding Health Research: how science media stories work

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• Format Websites
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Self-directed learning
• EBM Stage 0 - Why EBM?
• Duration <5 mins
• Difficulty Introductory

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-2a Reviews of fair comparisons should be systematic
• 1-1b Dramatic treatment effects are rare
• 2-3b Relative measures of effects can be misleading

Details

Good science reporting should be accurate and should put research conclusions in context. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Sometimes news stories about science are reported in such a way as to grab attention, rather than reflect science accurately. This can lead to people losing trust in science because it may appear to ‘say one thing one day and another the next’.

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