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Teaching students to critically assess health information

This is an excerpt from Essentials of Teaching Health Education 3rd Edition With HKPropel Access, The by Sarah Benes & Holly Alperin.

On any given day, we encounter vast amounts of health-related information coming at us from many sources (e.g., medical professionals, friends, colleagues, television, the Internet, news feeds, or social media). In addition, we have access to a variety of health-related resources claiming to maintain or improve our health. These include products such as energy drinks, supplements and vitamins, exercise equipment, and cold medicine as well as services from providers such as therapists, community health centers, acupuncturists, health clinics, chiropractors, yoga practitioners, body contouring specialists, and personal injury lawyers. Therefore, the skill of accessing valid and reliable resources to support the health and well-being of oneself and others—the ability to be a critical consumer and determine what will enhance or promote health while discarding what is not valid or reliable—is vital to improving or maintaining health and well-being. Helping students develop the skill of accessing valid and reliable resources prepares them to become actively engaged, thoughtful, and critical consumers of information and health-related resources, including products and services they may use. They should acquire the procedural knowledge and self-efficacy necessary to perform the skill and locate, understand, interpret, and judge information, products, services, and other resources to maintain or enhance both their own and others’ health and well-being successfully and with confidence (see figure 7.1).

The definition of accessing valid and reliable resources is similar to the definition of health literacy presented in chapter 4, so this may sound familiar. This skill directly addresses four aspects of health literacy: literacy, knowledge, competencies (access, appraise, apply, and use), and parameters (the context in which health literacy is applied). The fifth aspect of health literacy, motivation, also might be supported by this skill, because if students feel confident and competent in the ability to access valid and reliable resources when needed, they may become more motivated to take care of their health needs and work toward health goals. (This relates to the self-determination theory discussed in chapter 5.) Exploring broader contextual elements of accessing resources—such as what resources are available to whom, the cost of resources and how cost might affect access, and whether available resources meet the needs of the community—can help students see a bigger picture and perhaps work to create necessary community or social change. This skill is multifaceted and supports health literacy development by helping students learn how to discern whether a source is reliable when finding and using information and other resources, leading to more informed and health-promoting choices.

Standard 3 articulates the complex nature of this skill. As stated in the National HE Standards, the rationale for this skill is as follows:

Access to valid and reliable health information, products, services, and other resources is essential to promoting health and well-being, and preventing, detecting, managing, and treating health issues and conditions. Access to valid and reliable information, products, services, and other resources promotes health and well-being in individual, interpersonal, community, societal, and environmental contexts. This standard focuses on identifying, accessing, and evaluating valid and reliable resources, including managing misinformation and disinformation, within digital and in-person settings. Media and technology play a significant and increasing role in the way individuals learn about and connect with ourselves, others, and the world. This standard engages students in critical thinking around media messages and resources, including how they are accessed, evaluated, and used to support health and well-being. (SHAPE America, 2025, p. 55)

Accessing valid and reliable resources is the first skill presented in part II, because if health educators include this skill early, students can be more thoughtful in how they locate products and services, use information, and apply it to their world. If you lay the foundation early, you will spend less time explaining why valid and reliable resources are important and more time developing other skills. You can also have students apply this skill in other units. This provides opportunities to build skill proficiency, because most skills in the National HE Standards require students to use information or resources in some way.

For example, suppose a student has been having some issues during menstruation but isn’t sure what to do. After participating in a unit for this skill that focused on developing the ability to locate, access, interpret, and make judgments about menstrual health–related information through activities such as analyzing when it is necessary to access professional health services for issues related to menstruation, the student can make an informed choice about the type and location of health professionals or health services that are able to assist with this health issue. Perhaps another student wants to effectively advocate for a cause they believe in and needs to be able to cite credible evidence to support a position; the student needs to access information from reliable sources and must be able to use that information effectively. Finally, a student who recognizes that they need support for a mental health challenge needs to access valid and reliable resources to get the help they are seeking.

A final consideration is to ensure you are mindful of how your own experiences, biases, and lenses may affect how you teach this skill. In Intersectionality in Health Education, contributor and co-author Cara Grant (2025) shares a case study in which a teacher was presenting a unit on accessing valid and reliable resources, but due to her working assumptions based on her privileged identities and her access to health care, she missed opportunities to meet the needs of her students. As Grant and Boddy (2025) point out, “social determinants of health and socioecological model illustrate racism as a public health issue in accessing health care . . . as a result, those who are in marginalized groups within the intersectionality model . . . have reduced access to health care systems” (p. 4). We have to develop an awareness, a critical consciousness, about the broader issues affecting people’s ability to access valid and reliable resources in order to be able to bring that into our classrooms. We also need to examine our own lenses to consider ways that these lenses are affecting how and what we are teaching about both skills and content.

This chapter explores each step of the skill development model presented in chapter 2 for the skill of accessing valid and reliable resources.

More Excerpts From Essentials of Teaching Health Education 3rd Edition With HKPropel Access

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