A one-paragraph “what this study can and cannot show” box for every health news story

The problem: health stories compress complicated research into confident headlines, and readers cannot tell how strong the evidence is.

The proposal: news organisations and press offices add a standard short box to every story about a health study. It states, in plain language, the type of study (for example, a randomised trial or an observational study), how many people took part, the main comparison, the main limitation, and whether the finding has been repeated. Health literacy, the ability to find, understand and use health information, is the aim.

Who acts: editors adopt the template; press offices of universities and journals provide the facts; a small group of researchers maintains the wording.

Costs and trade-offs: it takes a minute or two per story. The danger is a box that becomes boilerplate, so the wording should be specific to each study, and checked by a health-literate reader.

First step: one newsroom adopts it for a month and measures whether readers say they understand the strength of the evidence better.