The Twelve Questions poster, cream with twelve leaf-numbered questions above a row of trees, fanned over The Evidence Ladder poster.

What's inside

  • The Twelve Questions: the whole Receipts Checklist on one page
  • The Two Numbers: risk shown as people, with one subtraction and one division
  • The Evidence Ladder: from a cell in a dish to a review of trials, drawn as a tree
  • Before you share a health headline: five quick checks and their red flags
  • One 4-page PDF, A4 portrait, sharp up to A3

Look inside

The Evidence Ladder poster: a large tree with six labelled cards, from a cell in a dish among the roots to a systematic review of trials in the canopy.The Two Numbers poster: two grids of 100 people, 10 red without the pill and 6 red with it, then 10 minus 6 is 4 and 100 divided by 4 is 25, above a row of potted plants.The Before you share a health headline poster: a dark green band of trees above five numbered checks, each with a red flag phrase, and three figures on exaggerated press releases.

Real pages from the file. Tap one to see it larger.

About it

Four posters for the wall where people argue about health. Each one is a single page in my usual greens, with more trees than strictly necessary.

The Twelve Questions. Every question from The Receipts Checklist, in order, on one page. Ask them of a health claim before you believe it. Most claims fall over by question four.

The Two Numbers. A headline says a pill cuts the risk by 40%. Forty per cent of what? Two grids of a hundred people show the risk without it and the risk with it. Then one subtraction and one division tell you how many people it really changes. The numbers are made up. The arithmetic is not.

The Evidence Ladder. From a cell in a dish and a mouse, up through one observational study and many, to one randomised trial and a systematic review of trials, drawn as a tree from the roots to the canopy. With the honest footnote: a big, well-run trial can beat a weak review.

Before you share a health headline. Five quick checks, each with the red flag phrase that gives a headline away, and what a study of 462 university press releases found about where the stretching starts.

Every real number on them comes from a published paper, named so you can read it yourself. They're A4 portrait and print cleanly at A3.

They won't tell anyone what to eat, take or stop. Hang them where the news gets read. A room with a ladder on the wall is harder to fool.

A page from it

A mouse. A whole body, but not a human one.

One randomised trial. A coin decides who gets it and who doesn’t. Coins don’t have habits.

Mostly? The rungs are a rule of thumb. A big, well-run trial can beat a weak review, and a review of poor studies is still poor.

Questions

What sizes can I print?
They're A4 portrait and drawn as vectors, so they stay sharp at A3 too. On US Letter paper, choose "fit to page" and you'll get a slightly smaller poster with a thin margin.
Colour or black and white?
They're made for colour. In black and white the words still read well, but on The Two Numbers the gold figures are hard to tell from the pale ones. Before you share a health headline has a dark green top, so it uses more ink than the other three.
Can I print them for a classroom or an office wall?
Yes. Print them for your own walls, at home or at work. Please don't share the PDF, post it online or sell the prints.
Is this medical advice?
No. The posters are about reading claims, papers and numbers. They don't tell anyone what to eat, take or stop. For anything about your own health, ask someone who can examine you.
Are the numbers real?
The Two Numbers uses made-up numbers, and says so on the poster; the arithmetic is real. Every other number comes from a published paper, named on the poster so you can look it up.
Do I need The Receipts Checklist as well?
No. The first poster has all twelve questions. The Checklist explains each one with a real case, if you want the long version.

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