I invite you to read Online Reviews Can Make Over The Counter Drugs Look Way Too Effective. The blog post discusses how 'evidence-based hearsay' and personal anecdotes overshadow clinical trial results. Highlights include:
- People often take medications and use health products based on digital word of mouth and the products don’t live up to expectations or just don’t work.
- Online reviewers portray medications as working 3 to 6 times better than they do in clinical trials that randomly assign drugs or placebos to broad samples.
- Students need to understand the scientific process, real data, and randomized clinical trials.
- Testimonials about health products also positively skewed information.
- An important example is the anti-vaccination movement.
How do we improve students understanding of scientific processes and procedures to help them make effective health decisions? What classroom strategies are you using to help students become informed about online reviews?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Kathy
@Kathy_Tracey