By Amy Harris

More than half of Americans use the internet to look for health or medical information, however what they find is often inaccurate.  

“The internet can be a good place to learn more about health conditions, but not all health information online is accurate,” warned Jess Begley, MaineHealth’s Senior Patient Health Education Program Manager.

In fact, marketers and content creators often create “fake news” on purpose – in other words, these are false stories or information that appear to be news items, but instead are really misinformation, intentionally created and spread to influence healthcare decisions or earn money.

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Such misinformation and fake news about health and wellness are ubiquitous in daily feeds and inboxes. One study of TikTok reported that as of October 2023, only 2.1 percent of the more than 67,000 health and nutrition TikTok videos analyzed were accurate.

On some sites, profiting from rapid developments in artificial intelligence, bots now answer health questions instead of trained healthcare providers.

A survey of 4,000 U.S. adults published in September 2024 found that during the previous 12 months, more than half of respondents (52 percent) reported trying different wellness tactics (e.g., health and wellness tools, resources, trends, or products) after learning about them on social media.

Raquel M., who has lived in the U.S. for three years after leaving Angola, tried a wellness strategy to lose weight and, according to her, almost ended up in the hospital. Following the rules of the diet, she ate nothing at all and just drank water for five days. Finally, exhausted, and weak, she abandoned the diet which, she complained, “[had promised] easy weight loss, without saying anything about the possible side effects.”

Leoni Y. has lived in Maine for the past year since leaving her home country of Gabon. She said she often feels confused by advertisements for medicines or supplements advertised as “natural.” She noted that she doesn’t know how to tell “whether natural means that something is good or safe.” She remembered social media posts in Gabon advertising medications to treat the flu and prevent malaria, and never being able to know whether or not they were trustworthy.

These five questions can be helpful when trying to determine if health information is accurate or not.

  1. What are the creator’s credentials? People who spread misinformation create posts that quote fake experts and cite studies that are not peer reviewed. So take the time to look up the background of the author or organization that posted the information.
  2. Is the post asking for money or personal information? Reputable online sources of health information do not charge money for their information, so avoid websites, posts, or videos that are trying to sell a product or service.
  3. How up-to-date is the health claim, post, or website? The science of health and medicine changes daily. So look for the names of medical professionals or institutions that have reviewed the information, ideally within the past few years.
  4. Does a post use red-flag words or “clickbait” to catch your attention? Watch for spelling and grammatical errors, sensationalism, or emotional language. Does the post promise a quick fix or an easy cure? Suspect posts that use terms such as “miracle cure,” “overnight success,” “wonder drug,” “limited-time offer,” “money-back guarantee,” “no risk,” “cure-all,” “100-percent safe,” “100-percent natural.”
  5. What scientific evidence supports the health claim? Do some basic fact-checking and look at multiple credible sources to back up health claims that seem too good to be true.

With all the misinformation that circulates, what are some good sources of health information? Credible sources include the Maine Center for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization. In addition, medical and healthcare organizations, hospitals, and academic medical institutions are also reliable sources of health information. Examples include the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Harvard Health, and the MaineHealth Knowledgebase Library, which has current information on health conditions, medical tests, treatments, and tools to help understand symptoms.

Jess Begley of MaineHealth refers patients to MedlinePlus.gov, which provides links to various credible websites and has resources in multiple languages. However, she cautions that there is no substitute for a visit with a physician: “If you are having symptoms and are worried about your health, it is important to speak with a healthcare provider.”