Searching for Health Information

How to Find Health Information Anywhere, Anytime

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• When you have questions about health, where do you usually get information?

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• How do you know that you can trust the information you find?

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Author

Audience

Accuracy

Bias

Currency

Links

Author

• Who is the author?• Can you find an author listed?• Do you trust the author’s knowledge?• Is there contact information for the author?• Is “Webmaster” the only contact you can

find?

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Audience

• Who is the webpage or article written for?• Is it written for a specific group?• Is it really meant to be used by someone

doing research?

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Accuracy

• Is the material scholarly?• Are there references cited?• Can you find evidence to support the

author’s claims and expertise?• Does the author show knowledge of the

field?• Are there spelling or grammar errors?• What domain is in the web site address?

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Bias

• Is the web page or article sponsored by a company that is trying to sell something?

• Is the author trying to sway your opinion?• Is the web page author trying to present

their point of view?• How detailed is the information?• Is there a broad scope to the information,

or a narrow focus?

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Currency

• Is the web page up to date?• Is there a date on the web page? • When was the page written?• When was the page last updated?• Is the information current?• Are the links to current information?• Are the links working?

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Links

• Where do the links take you?• Do they take you to information that

supports the first site?• Do the links represent only one point of

view?• Do the links work?• Do the links take you to advertisements?• Do the links take you to unrelated sites?

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• Use “ ” around a phrase

Results from putting food poisoning into the search box

• Use “ ” around a phrase

Results from putting food poisoning into the search box

Results from putting “food poisoning” into the search box

• Search within a specific domain

With some searches, you will get a lot of .com

results

• Search within a specific domain

You can get rid of the .com results by choosing another domain

• Search within a specific domain

Some .org websites are NOT good sources!

• Google usually searches on every word you put into the search box

• It ignores some words, though• To make it use those words, put a + in

front of the words

• Just like you can make Google add words, you can make Google take words out

• To make it ignore a word, put a - in front of the word

• You can also make Google find words that are similar to the one you’re looking for

• Using the ~ sign will find synonyms for your search word

www.health.hakia.com

www.health.hakia.com

www.tripdatabase.com

www.tripdatabase.com

www.medlineplus.gov

www.medlineplus.gov

www.medlineplus.gov

www.mdconsult.com

www.mdconsult.com

www.pubmed.gov

www.pubmed.gov

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• Be cautious about any health site that has advertisements

• Organizations and associations (American Diabetes Association, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) are usually good sources of information

Two last tips…