This news release speculates that a study in rats shows a new weight loss implant is superior to existing weight loss devices used in humans. That’s jumping ahead of the evidence.
This release needed a strong caution that observations made in tissue samples and mice don’t always translate to human outcomes.
While probiotics have been a popular focus of research in recent years, the claim that they could help millions with bipolar disease is unwarranted.
The release claims the diet “significantly improved blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, mood and cognitive function” but doesn’t provide any numbers to allow readers to gauge the size of improvement.
This news release did a good job of explaining how the study was done but didn’t provide data on benefits, costs, or harms.
All missing from this news release: benefits, harms, how it compares to other methods to treat aneurysms, cost, and if it’s available beyond one hospital.
The news release suggests results from lung tests in infants can predict future lung health. But the research can’t yet tell us that vitamin c use in pregnancy will result in any changes in lung health later on.
Follow-up studies are needed to confirm these results in more patients across a range of different cancers.
This news release offers no caution about harms nor the fact that benefits found in animal studies seldom translate to humans.
News release lacks clarity on benefits, harms, costs, and availability of the procedure.
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
There's pervasive media bias toward hyping treatment benefits while neglecting negative results & harms.
Big part of this is reliance on experts with financial &/or intellectual conflicts of interest.
Att'n journalists: Use this list 100 independent experts to correct imbalance https://t.co/Twzc1Sp8Vw
Even when stories get the facts right, they often fail to provide crucial context and caveats that would help audiences make sense of the news — or lack thereof, says @garyschwitzer of @HealthNewsRevu https://t.co/b7YO2fYt0a
Tips & Resources for Analyzing Health Care Claims
