michigan informatics

Evaluate your results

Once you have selected the resources that you will use to develop your health education curriculum, you will need to assess your resources to ensure that the information that you have collected is accurate.  Because you are disseminating health information with the purpose of educating your target audience, it is essential that you consider the following criteria to critically evaluate your information sources.

• Relevance: Is the information relevant to my original topic?
• Accuracy and credibility: Is the information based on fact?
• Currency: How current is the information?
• Objectivity or bias: Does the information come from a biased source?
• Sources or documentation: Is the information citing credible sources?
• Appropriateness: Is the information appropriate for my target audience?

The Searching for Public Health Literature and Finding Health Statistics Online tutorials provide additional information regarding evaluating web sites and evaluating statistical information, respectively.

If in the course of your evaluation, you are dissatisfied with the information that you have gathered, then you should consider revising your search to meet the need stated in your original question. Perhaps, changing the scope of your search to focus or broaden your search will provide better results. Once you have revised your search strategy, you will want to repeat your search with the new criteria and begin a new cycle of the iterative information gathering process until you are satisfied with your results.