Developing critical thinking and decision-making skills for cancer information: the Informed Health Choice-Cancer online learning resource.

Purpose: People impacted by cancer face increasing challenges in navigating a landscape of abundant health information and misinformation. This study outlines the development and pilot testing of the Informed Health Choices-Cancer (IHC-C) learning resource, designed to provide users the skills and knowledge necessary to think critically about the reliability of health claims and make well-informed choices. This study outlines the development and pilot testing of this learning resource.

What is the effect of the Informed Health Choices secondary school intervention on the ability of students in Rwanda to think critically about health choices after one-year follow-up? A cluster-randomized trial.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the Informed Health Choices secondary school intervention on the ability of students in Rwanda to think critically and make informed health choices after 1 year.

Methods: This was a two-arm cluster-randomized trial conducted in 84 lower secondary schools from 10 districts representing five provinces of Rwanda. We used stratified randomization to allocate schools 1:1 to the intervention or control arm.

The effects of teaching strategies on learning to think critically in primary and secondary schools: an overview of systematic reviews.

Background: We conducted an overview of systematic reviews about the effects of teaching strategies that can be used to teach primary and secondary school students to think critically. Our objective was to inform decisions about what teaching strategies to use in resources that we developed to teach critical thinking about health in secondary schools.

Methods: We mapped characteristics of systematic reviews of teaching strategies and summarised findings from the most relevant reviews to teaching students to think critically about health.

Effects of the Informed Health Choices secondary school intervention on the ability of lower secondary students in Kenya to think critically about health choices: 1-year follow-up of a cluster-randomized trial.

Introduction: The Informed Health Choices (IHC) secondary school intervention aimed to teach students to assess claims about treatments. This follow-up of a cluster randomized trial assessed the retention of knowledge and the application of the nine prioritized IHC key concepts 1 year after the intervention.

Methods: We conducted a random assignment of 80 secondary schools in Western Kenya into either the intervention (n = 40) or control (n = 40) group.

Alternative Presentations of Overall and Statistical Uncertainty for Adults' Understanding of the Results of a Randomized Trial of a Public Health Intervention: Parallel Web-Based Randomized Trials.

Background: Well-designed public health messages can help people make informed choices, while poorly designed messages or persuasive messages can confuse, lead to poorly informed decisions, and diminish trust in health authorities and research. Communicating uncertainties to the public about the results of health research is challenging, necessitating research on effective ways to disseminate this important aspect of randomized trials.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate people's understanding of overall and statistical uncertainty when presented with alternative ways of expressing randomized trial results.

One-year follow-up effects of the informed health choices secondary school intervention on students' ability to think critically about health in Uganda: a cluster randomized trial.

Introduction: We assessed the effects of the Informed Health Choices (IHC) secondary school intervention on students' ability to think critically about choices 1 year after the intervention.

Methods: We randomized eighty secondary schools to the intervention or control (usual curriculum). The schools were randomly selected from the central region of Uganda and included rural and urban, government, and privately-owned schools.

Process Evaluation of Teaching Critical Thinking About Health Using the Informed Health Choices Intervention in Uganda: A Mixed Methods Study.

Introduction: We designed the Informed Health Choices (IHC) secondary school intervention and evaluated whether it improves students' ability to assess the trustworthiness of claims about treatment effects in Uganda. We conducted a process evaluation alongside a randomized trial to identify factors that may affect the implementation, fidelity, and scaling up of the intervention in Uganda. We also explored the potential adverse and beneficial effects of the intervention.

Process Evaluation of Teaching Critical Thinking About Health Using the Informed Health Choices Intervention in Kenya: A Mixed Methods Study.

Introduction: We evaluated the Informed Health Choices secondary school intervention to help students in Kenya think critically about health choices. We conducted this process evaluation to explore if the intervention was implemented as planned, identify factors that facilitated or hindered implementation, potential benefits of the intervention, and how to scale up the intervention beyond the trial.

Methods: This was a mixed methods process evaluation nested in a cluster-randomized trial of the Informed Health Choices intervention.

Process Evaluation of Teaching Critical Thinking About Health Using the Informed Health Choices Intervention in Rwanda: A Mixed Methods Study.

Introduction: We evaluated the Informed Health Choices secondary school intervention in a cluster randomized trial in Rwanda. The intervention was effective in helping students to think critically about health. In parallel to the trial, we conducted a process evaluation to assess factors affecting the implementation, impacts, and scale-up of the intervention.

Teaching critical thinking about health information and choices in secondary schools: human-centred design of digital resources.

Background: Learning to thinking critically about health information and choices can protect people from unnecessary suffering, harm, and resource waste. Earlier work revealed that children can learn these skills, but printing costs and curricula compatibility remain important barriers to school implementation. We aimed to develop a set of digital learning resources for students to think critically about health that were suitable for use in Kenyan, Rwandan, and Ugandan secondary schools.

Prioritising Key Concepts for informed health choices in cancer: An evidence-based online educational programme.

Objective: The overabundance of health misinformation has undermined people's capacity to make evidence-based, informed choices about their health. Using the Informed Health Choices (IHC) Key Concepts (KCs), we are developing a two-stage education programme, Informed Health Choices-Cancer (IHC-C), to provide those impacted by cancer with the knowledge and skills necessary to think critically about the reliability of health information and claims and make well-informed choices. Stage 1 seeks to prioritise the most relevant Key Concepts.

Public participation in decisions about measures to manage the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and health authorities faced tough decisions about infection prevention and control measures such as social distancing, face masks and travel. Judgements underlying those decisions require democratic input, as well as expert input. The aim of this review is to inform decisions about how best to achieve public participation in decisions about public health and social interventions in the context of a pandemic or other public health emergencies.

Effects of the Informed Health Choices secondary school intervention on the ability of students in Rwanda to think critically about health choices: A cluster-randomized trial.

Aim: The aim of this trial was to evaluate the effects of the Informed Health Choices intervention on the ability of students in Rwandan to think critically and make Informed Health Choices.

Methods: We conducted a two-arm cluster-randomized trial in 84 lower secondary schools from 10 districts representing five provinces of Rwanda. We used stratified randomization to allocate schools to the intervention or control.

Effects of the Informed Health Choices secondary school intervention: A prospective meta-analysis.

Aim: The aim of this prospective meta-analysis was to synthesize the results of three cluster-randomized trials of an intervention designed to teach lower-secondary school students (age 14-16) to think critically about health choices.

Methods: We conducted the trials in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. The intervention included a 2- to 3-day teacher training workshop, digital resources, and ten 40-min lessons.

Use of the informed health choices educational intervention to improve secondary students' ability to think critically about health interventions in Uganda: A cluster-randomized trial.

Aim: The aim was to evaluate the effect of the Informed Health Choices (IHC) educational intervention on secondary students' ability to assess health-related claims and make informed choices.

Methods: In a cluster-randomized trial, we randomized 80 secondary schools (students aged 13-17 years) in Uganda to the intervention or control (usual curriculum). The intervention included a 2-day teacher training workshop, 10 lessons accessed online by teachers and delivered in one school term.

Prioritisation of Informed Health Choices (IHC) key concepts to be included in lower secondary school resources: A consensus study.

Background: The Informed Health Choices Key Concepts are principles for thinking critically about healthcare claims and deciding what to do. The Key Concepts provide a framework for designing curricula, learning resources, and evaluation tools.

Objectives: To prioritise which of the 49 Key Concepts to include in resources for lower secondary schools in East Africa.

Contextualizing critical thinking about health using digital technology in secondary schools in Kenya: a qualitative analysis.

Background: Good health decisions depend on one's ability to think critically about health claims and make informed health choices. Young people can learn these skills through school-based interventions, but learning resources need to be low-cost and built around lessons that can fit into existing curricula. As a first step to developing and evaluating digital learning resources that are feasible to use in Kenyan secondary schools, we conducted a context analysis to explore interest in critical thinking for health, map where critical thinking about health best fits in the curriculum, explore conditions for introducing new learning resources, and describe the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure available for teaching and learning.

Key concepts for informed health choices: Where's the evidence?

Background: The Informed Health Choices (IHC) Key Concepts is a framework that provides a basis for developing educational resources and evaluating people's ability to think critically about health actions. We developed the original Key Concepts framework by reviewing texts and checklists for the public, journalists, and health professionals and collecting structured feedback from an international advisory group. We revised the original 2015 framework yearly from 2016 to 2018 based on feedback and experience using the framework.

Prioritising Informed Health Choices Key Concepts for those impacted by cancer: a protocol.

Few areas of health have been as insidiously influenced by misinformation as cancer. Thus, interventions that can help people impacted by cancer reduce the extent to which they are victims of misinformation are necessary. The Informed Health Choices (IHC) initiative has developed Key Concepts that can be used in the development of interventions for evaluating the trustworthiness of claims about the effects of health treatments.

Health communication in and out of public health emergencies: to persuade or to inform?

Much health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic has been designed to persuade people more than to inform them. For example, messages like "masks save lives" are intended to compel people to wear face masks, not to enable them to make an informed decision about whether to wear a face mask or to understand the justification for a mask mandate. Both persuading people and informing them are reasonable goals for health communication.

Quality of information in news media reports about the effects of health interventions: Systematic review and meta-analyses.

Background Many studies have assessed the quality of news reports about the effects of health interventions, but there has been no systematic review of such studies or meta-analysis of their results. We aimed to fill this gap (PROSPERO ID: CRD42018095032). Methods We included studies that used at least one explicit, prespecified and generic criterion to assess the quality of news reports in print, broadcast, or online news media, and specified the sampling frame, and the selection criteria and technique.

Learning to think critically about health using digital technology in Ugandan lower secondary schools: A contextual analysis.

Introduction: The world is awash with claims about the effects of health interventions. Many of these claims are untrustworthy because the bases are unreliable. Acting on unreliable claims can lead to waste of resources and poor health outcomes.

The Norwegian public's ability to assess treatment claims: results of a cross-sectional study of critical health literacy.

: Few studies have evaluated the ability of the general public to assess the trustworthiness of claims about the effects of healthcare. For the most part, those studies have used self-reported measures of critical health literacy. : We mailed 4500 invitations to Norwegian adults.