1. Say It Well
How to Find (and Communicate) Trustworthy Health
Information for Employees
Sandra Wendel
Write On, Inc.

2. www.health-eheadlines.com
publisher@health-eheadlines.com

3. Where are your employees going for
health information?

5. What is your role in conveying health
information?
• Wellness director/manager
• HR manager/HR staff
• Vendor of health services
• Doing wellness as part of another job
• Other

6. What do you consider to be
• Reliable
• Trusted
• Accurate
health information on the Internet? And what
do your employees regard as trustworthy?

8. Optum Health study asked: What sources of information do you typically look
to in order to make health care decisions for you and your family?

9. Does information change
behavior?

10. Optum Health study asked: Which of the following
activities, if any, did you take as the result of receiving a
communication from your employer or health plan?

11. What do you consider to be trusted
and reliable health information?
• Website (government, pharmaceutical company,
medical center)
• Professional medical journal
• Press release
• New York Times story
• USA Today
• Oprah
• The Doctors (TV show), Dr. Oz
• Online reader poll
• CNN

12. Can Eating Tomatoes Lower the Risk of Stroke?
Released: 10/2/2012 2:50 PM EDT
Embargo will expire: 10/8/2012 4:00 PM EDT
Source: American Academy of Neurology (AAN)
Newswise — MINNEAPOLIS – Eating tomatoes and tomato-based foods is associated with a lower
risk of stroke, according to new research published in the October 9, 2012, print issue
of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Tomatoes are
high in the antioxidant lycopene.
The study found that people with the highest amounts of lycopene in their blood were 55
percent less likely to have a stroke than people with the lowest amounts of lycopene in their
blood.
The study involved 1,031 men in Finland between the ages of 46 and 65. The level of lycopene in
their blood was tested at the start of the study and they were followed for an average of 12
years. During that time, 67 men had a stroke.
Among the men with the lowest levels of lycopene, 25 of 258 men had a stroke. Among those
with the highest levels of lycopene, 11 of 259 men had a stroke. When researchers looked at
just strokes due to blood clots, the results were even stronger. Those with the highest levels
of lycopene were 59 percent less likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest levels.
“This study adds to the evidence that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with a
lower risk of stroke,” said study author Jouni Karppi, PhD, of the University of Eastern Finland
in Kuopio. “The results support the recommendation that people get more than five servings
of fruits and vegetables a day, which would likely lead to a major reduction in the number of
strokes worldwide, according to previous research.”
The study also looked at blood levels of the antioxidants alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, alpha-
tocopherol and retinol, but found no association between the blood levels and risk of stroke.
The study was supported by Lapland Central Hospital.

13. The chicken soup or the egg

19. Thanks for considering this. Have a good rest of the week.
Vicky Cerino W: (402) 559-5190; C: (402) 350-0898 F: 402 559-4103 vcerino@unmc.edu
Media Relations Coordinator, University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Public Relations 985230 Nebraska Medical
Center Omaha, NE 68198-5230
Got a cold or flu? UNMC researcher says try chicken soup to ease symptoms
Have a cold or upper respiratory flu? You might try chicken soup to ease the symptoms.
In a study published in 2000 in the scientific journal, CHEST, University of Nebraska Medical Center physician and researcher
Stephen Rennard, M.D., found that chicken soup may ease the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections. The study has
received international attention since 1993 when it was first presented at a conference in San Francisco.
The research was originally conducted in 1993 when Dr. Rennard’s wife, Barbara, prepared three batches of chicken soup in their
home, and Dr. Rennard studied in his laboratory under controlled conditions. Known as “Grandma’s Soup,” the recipe includes
chicken, onions, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, parsley, salt and pepper.
“Everyone’s heard this from their mother and grandmother in many cultures,” said Dr. Rennard, Larson Professor of Medicine in
the pulmonary and critical care medicine section at UNMC. “We found chicken soup might have some anti-inflammatory value.”
The suspected benefits of chicken soup were reported centuries ago. The Egyptian Jewish physician and philosopher, Moshe ben
Maimon, recommended chicken soup for respiratory tract symptoms in his 12th century writings which were, in turn, based on
earlier Greek writings. But, there’s little in the literature to explain how it works.
The study’s focus was to find out if the movement of neutrophils – the most common white cell in the blood that defends the
body against infection – would be blocked or reduced by chicken soup. Researchers suspect the reduction in movement of
neutrophils may reduce activity in the upper respiratory tract that can cause symptoms associated with a cold.
Researchers collected neutrophils – white blood cells -- from blood donated by healthy volunteers.
In their findings, the team found the movement of neutrophils was reduced, suggesting that chicken soup might have an anti-
inflammatory activity, which may ease symptoms and shorten upper respiratory tract infections.
“A variety of soup preparations were evaluated and found to be variably, but generally, able to inhibit neutrophils,” Dr. Rennard
said. “Many store-bought, prepared and even canned soups, had the same inhibitory effect.”

20. Medical Library Association Top Ten list
• Resources: A User’s Guide to Finding and
Evaluating Health Information on the Web
from the Medical Library Association

22. The “test”
• Sponsorship
• How current
• How factual
• Who is the audience
• HONcode

26. Medline Plus: Evaluating Internet Health Information: A
Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine (16-minute
video)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/webeval/webeval_
start.html
Healthfinder.gov: Quality Guidelines, Website Quality
Checklist
http://healthfinder.gov/aboutus/content_guidelines.aspx

27. How do employees want to get
information?
Have you ever asked them?

28. Optum Health study asked: How would you like to
receive health- and wellness-related communications
from your employer/union?

29. What are your barriers and limitations
in generating trusted health
information?
• No money
• No time
• No expertise

30. Outside-the-box ways to deliver
health information

34. Thank you
Email me if you would like a summary of the
websites and a tip sheet of resources for health
promotion managers:
publisher@health-eheadlines.com
On the web at www.health-eheadlines.com