There is a large disparity between what people see in social media about health research and the underlying strength of evidence

Our social media feeds are full of articles shared by friends and family that make claims about how something can prevent a particular health condition. But how robust is the scientific evidence base underpinning these claims? Noah Haber, Alexander Breskin, Ellen Moscoe and Emily R. Smith, on behalf of the CLAIMS team, report on a systematic review of the state of causal inference in media articles and academic studies at the point of consumption on social media. There is a large disparity between what people see in social media about health research compared with the underlying strength of evidence, both in the studies themselves and in the media articles describing their findings. The studies tend to imply stronger causal inference than their methods merit, while media articles reporting on them were found to be further overstated and inaccurate.