Health Education & Promotion: Consumer Health
Information Evaluation for Health Educators
Health Education and Health Promotion are fields where your abilities to critically think about and evaluate information are key. Working with the public means you will be an expert in understanding the validity and evidence behind detailed and sometimes complicated health information. You will be synthesizing what you read and learn and communicate with the general public. The resources on this page point to credible consumer health information, and also provide you with some tools to continue evaluating the information you find.
S.I.F.T. Method of Evaluation
Because anyone can make a website and publish information on the open web without it being fact checked, it’s extra important to critically evaluate what you find before you include it in your academic research. The S.I.F.T. method lays out 4 moves, or steps you can take, as you investigate each source.
Databases
- Health Source: Consumer EditionCovers article citations and full text articles from popular health and medicine journals.
- Consumer Health CompleteProvides consumer-oriented health information. It includes patient-oriented reference entries, fact sheets and pamphlets, news and magazines, and more.
Consumer Health Websites
- MedlinePlusProvides health information to consumers from the National Library of Medicine.
- NOAH: New York Online Access to Health Home PageAll its resources are available in Spanish as well as in English. This site offers information on patients rights, support groups, pain, childrens health, home safety, and injury prevention, as well as the expected medical conditions.
- Go Ask AliceInteractive and reference information maintained by Columbia University Health Education Department.
- Healthfinder.govHealthfinder.gov is an award-winning Federal Web site for consumers, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services together with other Federal agencies. Since 1997, Healthfinder.gov has been recognized as a key resource for finding the best government and nonprofit health and human services information on the Internet. Healthfinder.gov links to carefully selected information and Web sites from over 1,500 health-related organizations.
- National Health Information CenterThe National Health Information Center (NHIC) is a health information referral service. NHIC puts health professionals and consumers who have health questions in touch with those organizations that are best able to provide answers.
- Science.govScience.gov is a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies including research and development results.