Table 7 The Health Choices radio programme

The Health Choices radio programme featured a radio show host who interviewed a health researcher and a professor about two treatment claims. For each claim, people from the target audience gave their opinions before and after the trustworthiness of the claim was discussed by the three show participants.

To explain the trustworthiness of each claim, the guests (health researcher and professor) applied an IHC key concept to assess the claim and used an analogy to help explain that concept. Then, the best available evidence from a systematic review was presented and used to assess the trustworthiness of the claim. More information was provided about where a listener could access research evidence pertaining to similar claims. Key take-home messages were about how to assess the trustworthiness of treatment claims. We produced two prototypes, both of which can be found here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeMvL6ApG1N2G_aT-nfOI1NAOyF9FzKjb). Each episode had the following:

1. Welcome remarks for the programme and the episode

2. A recap of the previous episode

3. An overview of the episode

4. A skit introducing the first claim

5. Opinions from three people from the target audience about the first claim before listening to an explanation

6. Explanation of the reliability of the first claim applying an IHC key concept

7. A presentation of the findings of a systematic review

8. Opinions from the same three people about the claim after listening to the explanation and evidence

9. Introduction of the second claim and a repetition of steps 5 to 8

10. Conclusion of the episode