“If you’ve just read a health-related headline that’s caused you to spit out your morning coffee (“Coffee causes cancer” usually does the trick) it’s always best to follow the Blitz slogan: ‘Keep Calm and Carry On.’”

— Alicia White, Health Research Reviewer Manager, Bazian, a British medical evidence consulting firm

Talkback just came across an oldie-but-goodie post from The Healthcare Blog by Alicia White, whose company produces "Behind The Headlines" news analysis on Britain's National Health Service health news Web site.

Titled "How to Read Articles about Health and Health Care," the post offers simple questions the public can ask when reading stories about health research. It's funny — and a useful reminder of the questions journalists, too, should be asking every time they get pitched on a health story.

Here's a sample question and answer:

Is the article based on a conference abstract?

Another area for caution: news articles based on conference abstracts. Research presented at conferences is often at a preliminary stage and usually hasn't been scrutinised by experts in the field. Also conference abstracts rarely provide full details about methods, making it difficult to judge how well the research was conducted. For these reasons, articles based on conference abstracts should be no cause for alarm.

ReportingonHealth offers other guides for journalists on interpreting medical research and the agendas of those who promote it.

Any questions you'd add to Alicia White's list? Share your thoughts in the comments below. You need to be a registered member of ReportingonHealth.org to leave a comment, so if you haven't joined yet, click here. It's easy, quick and free.