Health Information (Review Questions)

[Last update: 5/9/04]

Harris, R. (1997). Evaluating internet research sources, [Web site]. Available: http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm [2003, Feb 10]. 

1. T/F: Health information on the Internet (and health information in general) varies greatly in accuracy, reliability, and value. 
2. List five reasons health information is posted on the Internet. {ANS: to inform, to persuade, to sell, to present a viewpoint, to change an attitude or belief}
3. Why is it important to understand your reasons for searching for health information on the Web before getting started? {ANS: This will allow you to screen sources more quickly and accurately. Dr. G's expansion of this thought: The question must be understood before searching for an answer, whatever the source. That is, you must have a clear research question and objective before beginning any research project. "Hypotheses are nets. Only he who cast will catch" (Novalis)}
4. T/F: Is there a single indicator of credibility and accuracy? 
5. What does [the acronym] CARS stand for?  

1. Why is credibility a question of trust? {ANS: Because this is the way people have always made important decisions.}
2. Are author's credentials important in establishing credibility? {ANS: Yes, but only to a degree. There are a lot of bogus and low-level credentials given for various reasons.}
3. Are author's motives important in establishing credibility? {Yes. Everyone is specious.}
4. What type of evidence can you use to determine whether online material underwent quality control. {ANS: 1) The source is a credible organization (e.g., .gov site), 2) the source is an online refereed journal, 3) the source is "real" professional journal or textbook}
5. What is meta-information?  {Metainformation = information about information; summary and evaluative information taken from another source}
6. List clues in tone and style that suggest lack of credibility. {Anonymity; lack of quality control (see #4 above); unbalanced information (the article says negative metainformation, but the same can be said about uniformly positive metainformation), bad grammar}

1. T/F: Accurate sources tend to present opposing views. 
2. T/F: Information pretending to be objective often has a hidden agenda. 
3. T/F: Article that are vague and tend toward generalizations are less likely to be accurate than those that contain specific and detailed information. 

1. T/F: Fair articles tend to be passionate in tone. 
2. What is a "straw man."  (ANS: A straw man argument is to present your opponent's views in a wild and irrational way.) 
3. Why is important to be on the lookout for  politically distorted health information on the web. 
4. What is a "conflict of interest?" (ANS: A conflict of interest is present when the messenger is likely to gain financially from believing their message.) 
5. T/F: "Reality tests" are valuable when evaluating health information. 
6. List indicators of reasonableness. (ANS: Fairness, Objectivity, Moderateness, Consistency, World View). 
7. List indicators of non-reasonableness. (ANS: intemperate tone, over-claims, sweeping statements, conflict of interest)

1. Why is it essential for the author to list the source of statistics and other information in health articles? 
2. What does "corroboration" mean?