Knowing which health information to trust and which to ignore can be hard. You might get conflicting information from many people who claim to have the answers. While this page is about assessing how reliable health information is in general, it can be useful during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How can I make informed health choices?
Cochrane has developed a free online training programme called Cochrane Evidence Essentials. It is an easy-to-follow introduction to Evidence Based Medicine, clinical trials, and Cochrane evidence. It is designed for patients, care givers, family members, policy makers, and members of the healthcare team.
You will be guided through the modules by the personal learning journey of ‘Eleni’, a fictional consumer. The modules are presented in the form of a story, but you are free to skip this and explore the learning in any way you choose. The learning is interactive, with things to read, film and audio, quizzes, and ways to check your learning. There are links to further resources if you wish to continue learning about a particular topic.
This learning has been co-produced by healthcare consumers, researchers, and a range of experts. It's free to use and a fun way to learn about making informed health choices!
Where can I find information I can trust?
In the ever-changing situation that we are in, it's important to have the latest information, but we must make sure it comes from trust-worthy sources. We have collected a variety of helpful resources related to COVID-19 from our community and partners.
- The World Health Organization offers reliable and practical COVID-19 advice for the public, including a myth busters series
- The Cochrane Consumer Network is a network of patients, carers, and family members with first-hand experience of a healthcare conditions. They have set up a ‘help using evidence’ page on their website. The webpage links to different organizations around the world and resources to help with finding useful health information
How can Cochrane help?
Cochrane is a global independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers and people interested in health. We produce Cochrane Reviews; systematic reviews of research in healthcare and health policy. Cochrane Reviews are published on The Cochrane Library.
Cochrane contributors work together to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. This is vital for us to generate authoritative and reliable information, working freely, unconstrained by commercial and financial interests.
We gather and analyze the best available evidence to help people make informed decisions about health and health care. These are called systematic reviews. Our work is recognized as representing an international gold standard for high quality, trusted information.
Additional Resources
- Read the Evidently Cochrane blog post Health advice in the media: how do we know what to believe?