Evaluating Online Health Information
Identify Keywords
Keywords are the main ideas or concepts of your topic. You will also want to come up with related terms in order to expand your searching.
Example topic question: What is the prevalence of obesity in children?
|
Keywords |
prevalence |
obesity |
children |
|
Related terms |
occurence rate
|
overweight |
boys / girls kids preteens |
When searching, string your keywords together with “and” rather than entering the entire research question. Mix and match terms depending on results.
Example: rate and obesity and children
Google Search Tips
If you choose to search the web on your own, remember to evaluate websites for timeliness, reliability, authority, and purpose. Also, consider your own "self-bias" in reviewing information from the web. Not all the information on the web is trustworthy.
+ Search Tip 1 Consider which organization(s) ("stakeholder") would be interested in researching and publishing information on your topic. For example, if your topic is 'affordable healthcare', a government agency or insurance association might be interested in tracking the scope of the problem. Limit your google search by site:gov or site:org (ex: healthcare site:gov). Site:edu is another great limiter. Other stakeholders for your topic may include consumer advocates, professionals, policy makers, and think tank organizations. If you can't find a group interested in your topic, read a few journal articles for ideas.
+ Tip 2: If you find a website that is particularly useful and you want to search for web pages with similar content, limit your Google search by related:website address (ex: related:www.census.gov).
+ Tip 2: If you find a website that is particularly useful and you want to search for web pages with similar content, limit your Google search by related:website address (ex: related:www.census.gov).