Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun 23;18(13):6764.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18136764.

Strengthening Critical Health Literacy for Health Information Appraisal: An Approach from Argumentation Theory

Sara Rubinelli  1   2 , Alexander Ort  1 , Claudia Zanini  1   2 , Maddalena Fiordelli  2   3 , Nicola Diviani  1   2
Affiliations

Strengthening Critical Health Literacy for Health Information Appraisal: An Approach from Argumentation Theory

Sara Rubinelli et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The overload of health information has been a major challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health authorities play a primary role in managing this information. However, individuals have to apply critical health literacy to evaluate it. The objective of this paper is to identify targets for strengthening critical health literacy by focusing on the field of argumentation theory. This paper is based on the textual analysis of instances of health information through the lens of argumentation theory. The results show that critical health literacy benefits from: (1) understanding the concept of argument and the supporting reasons, (2) identifying the main argument schemes, and (3) the knowledge and use of the main critical questions to check the soundness of arguments. This study operationalizes the main aspects of critical health literacy. It calls for specific educational and training initiatives in the field. Moreover, it argues in favor of broadening the current educational curricula to empower individuals to engage in informed and quality decision making. Strengthening individuals' critical health literacy involves interventions to empower in argument evaluation. For this purpose, argumentation theory has analytical and normative frameworks that can be adapted within a lay-audience education concept.

Keywords: argumentation theory; critical health literacy; critical thinking; disinformation; health communication; health information; health literacy; information appraisal; misinformation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example of symptomatic argumentation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example of argument based on a comparison relation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Example of argument based on a causal relation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. WHO Director-General’s Opening Remarks at the Media Briefing on COVID-19-5 March 2020. [(accessed on 24 March 2020)]; Available online: https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-re....
    1. Eysenbach G., Powell J., Kuss O., Sa E.R. Empirical studies assessing the quality of health information for consumers on the world wide web: A systematic review. JAMA. 2002;287:2691–2700. - PubMed
    1. Cline R.J., Haynes K.M. Consumer health information seeking on the Internet: The state of the art. Health Educ. Res. 2001;16:671–692. doi: 10.1093/her/16.6.671. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Allington D., Duffy B., Wessely S., Dhavan N., Rubin J. Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychol. Med. 2020:1–7. doi: 10.1017/S003329172000224X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brennen J.S., Simon F., Howard P.N., Nielsen R.K. Types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation. Reuters Inst. 2020;7:3-1.

Publication types