Health Claim Source-Trace Worksheet

For the method in Check a Health Claim Before Sharing It. Use AI to find and organize sources - never to render a truth verdict.

Not for

Urgent personal health questions, or anything about your own symptoms or medications. Those go to a pharmacist or your clinician, not to a source-trace exercise.

Step 1: The original message

• Where I saw it (chat, app, article):
• Who shared it:
• Full text or screenshot reference:

Step 2: The specific, checkable claim (strip the framing)

One plain sentence:

Step 3: Source chain

Step 4: Applicability check

• Population or context the source actually covers:
• How recent the source is:
• Qualifications the source itself states:
• Study design or evidence level, if research:
• Funding, conflicts of interest, or commercial purpose disclosed:
• Whether a current health authority, systematic review, or professional guideline addresses it:
• Whether credible sources disagree, and why:

Step 5: Decision

☐ Share as written - suitable current evidence supports the exact wording and context ☐ Share with context - source is real but needs a caveat: ______________________ ☐ Do not share - support, suitability, or applicability is uncertain; a missing citation means the claim is unsupported here, not automatically false

Reason for this decision, in one sentence:

The three prompts to reuse

1. Extract the checkable claim

Here is a health-related message I received: [paste it]. Extract the
single specific, checkable factual claim being made, in one plain
sentence. Ignore the tone, urgency, and any call to action - I only
want the underlying claim.

2. Find sources, not verdicts

For this claim: "[claim from step 2]" - find what kind of sources
typically address this topic (health authorities, peer-reviewed
research, professional medical bodies) and suggest specific
organizations or publications I should check directly. Do not tell me
whether the claim is true - I will check the sources myself.

3. Check applicability

Here is what the source actually says: [paste the relevant section].
Help me identify: what population or context this applies to, how
recent it is, and any qualifications the source itself states. Do not
add a conclusion about whether the original claim is fair - just
surface what the source itself says and doesn't say.

Before you forward anything

• I opened the named source myself - I did not trust the AI’s summary of it
• The source still applies to the general claim, not just a narrow case
• I checked author/publisher, purpose, date, evidence design, and disclosed conflicts
• I looked for current guidance or higher-level evidence and recorded credible disagreement
• My decision (share / share with context / do not share) is written down with a reason
• If this is about my own health, I asked a pharmacist or clinician instead of relying on this worksheet