Key Concepts introduction

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Informed Health Choices (IHC) Key Concepts are principles for deciding what to believe and what to do for our health.

Explore all Key Concepts:

•   Concepts about claims – Recognise unreliable claims 

•   Concepts about evidence – Recognise reliable evidence 

•   Concepts about choices – Make well-informed choices.

Information overload

There is lots of information – including a lot of misinformation – about what is good or bad for our health. This includes information about the effects of, for example, taking a medicine, exercising, eating chocolate, or not eating chocolate.

It also includes things that we do for the health of a community — for example, making sure that water is safe to drink, making sure everyone has access to health care when they need it, or reducing the use of fossil fuels.

Principles to help people decide what to believe and what to do

The Informed Health Choices (IHC) Key Concepts are principles that can help us decide what to believe about the effects of doing something for our health and what to do. The concepts can help us to recognise unreliable claims, recognise reliable evidence, and make well-informed choices.

Making an informed choice entails using the best information available when we decide what to do. For health choices, this includes using the best available information about the effects of doing (or not doing) something. Informed health choices don’t guarantee good outcomes, but they make good outcomes more likely.

Publications and resources for the Key Concepts

In-depth explanations and the basis for the Key Concepts

English: Key Concepts for Informed Health Choices: a framework for enabling people to think critically about health claims (Version 2022)

Translations: Spanish (2018 version), Arabic (2017 version)

Explanatory essays:


Development of the Key Concepts: 

We published the first version of the IHC Key Concepts in 2015. In our Key Concepts publications, you can find earlier versions of the Key Concepts, reports of how we developed the Key Concepts, and how we have used the Key Concepts.

Key Concepts for primary school students

The following 12 Key Concepts formed the basis of IHC resources for primary schools (10-12 year olds):

Concepts about claims:


Concepts about evidence:


Concepts about choices:

 

In a structured process, we identified which Key Concepts were likely relevant and teachable to primary school students. See: Prioritization of concepts for primary school.

Key concepts for secondary school students

The following 9 Key Concepts formed the basis of the Be Smart About Your Health resources for secondary schools:

Concepts about claims:


Concepts about evidence:


Concepts about choices:

In a structured process, we identified which Key Concepts were likely relevant and teachable to secondary school students.
See: Prioritization of concepts for secondary school.

Key Concepts for parents

The following 9 Key Concepts form the basis of two podcasts developed for parents (Ugandan podcast and USA podcast):

Concepts about claims:


Concepts about evidence:


Concepts about choices:

 

In a structured process, we identified which Key Concepts were likely relevant and teachable to parents.
See: Prioritization of concepts for mass media

Key Concepts for other disciplines

Generic Key Concept framework: Generic framework of key concepts to make or support informed choices within at least 14 fields (PDF)

See also: Nature article about this framework (PDF) and how it was developed

Additionally, people have adapted Key Concepts for thinking critically about interventions within the following fields:

 

See also our publications about “informed choices beyond health”

 

Explore all Key Concepts:

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