551 Health claim verifications avg. score 5.1/10 219 rated (mostly) true 266 rated (mostly) false
“Hepatitis C is a liver infection.”
The statement is accurate. Authoritative medical sources explicitly describe hepatitis C as a viral infection of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus. While the disease can also have effects outside the liver and may become chronic, those facts do not make the core description incorrect.
“The abbreviation "HIV" stands for "Human Immunodeficiency Virus".”
Authoritative medical and public-health sources consistently define HIV as “Human Immunodeficiency Virus.” There is no credible evidence for an alternative accepted expansion. Any differing online formulations are simply mistakes, not legitimate medical usage.
“Technostress is psychological stress caused by the use of information and communication technologies.”
The claim matches the dominant academic definition. Across peer-reviewed and authoritative sources, technostress is generally described as psychological stress or strain that arises from interacting with ICTs. Some authors add physiological symptoms or emphasize difficulty coping with ICT demands, but those are refinements, not contradictions.
“Daily coffee consumption, when the coffee is consumed at least 8 hours before bedtime, is bad for health.”
The evidence does not support the claim. High-quality reviews generally find moderate daily coffee consumption is associated with neutral or favorable health outcomes, not broad harm. The main bedtime-caffeine studies examined 0, 3, and 6 hours before sleep, so they do not establish that coffee consumed at least 8 hours before bed is harmful overall.
“Sharks do not get cancer.”
Sharks are not cancer-proof. Authoritative medical sources and peer-reviewed studies document both benign and malignant tumors in sharks and explicitly identify the claim as a myth. Research on low mutation rates or distinctive immune genes may suggest biological differences, but it does not show that sharks never develop cancer.
“Topical vitamin C application improves skin outcomes even in people who already have adequate vitamin C levels.”
The evidence does not support a broad claim that topical vitamin C improves skin outcomes in people who already have adequate vitamin C levels. Reviews most directly addressing that subgroup report little or no added uptake or effect once vitamin C status is already sufficient. Topical vitamin C may help some skin conditions in general, but the key subgroup named in the claim has not been convincingly shown to benefit.
“Consuming vitamins or other micronutrients (for example, vitamin C) at doses above healthy or recommended levels provides additional measurable health benefits.”
The evidence does not support a general health benefit from consuming vitamins or micronutrients above recommended levels. Authoritative reviews and guidelines find that extra intake usually does not improve major health outcomes in people who are not deficient, while some high-dose regimens show no benefit or possible harm. Limited signals in special clinical settings do not justify the broad claim.
“In adolescent health promotion, the use of student-produced public artifacts as a learning and dissemination mechanism draws on the PhotoVoice tradition described by Caroline Wang and Mary Ann Burris (1997) and the peer education tradition described by Graham Turner and Jonathan Shepherd (1999).”
The claim is largely supported, but the connection is partly inferential. The literature clearly ties PhotoVoice to Wang and Burris (1997) and peer education to Turner and Shepherd (1999), and student-created public artifacts in adolescent health promotion reasonably draw from both ideas. However, no strong source explicitly presents this as a formal two-tradition framework.
“Adolescents aged 16–18 are still developing the capacity for systematic deliberative reasoning, which makes them disproportionately susceptible to cognitive heuristics and biases including the gambler's fallacy, the illusion of control in games of chance, and optimism bias.”
The evidence supports a narrower, context-specific claim rather than the broad one presented. Adolescents aged 16–18 often have adult-like basic reasoning ability, but their psychosocial maturity and self-control are still developing, especially in emotionally charged or reward-driven situations. Research does support gambling-related distortions such as the gambler’s fallacy and illusion of control in adolescents, but the claim overstates the cause, the breadth, and the support for optimism bias.
“Ladouceur et al. (2004) used interactive classroom activities to correct erroneous gambling cognitions, including the gambler's fallacy and the illusion of control, among secondary school students.”
The study is correctly identified, but its teaching method is misdescribed. Evidence indicates Ladouceur et al. (2004) targeted gambling misconceptions among secondary school students, including beliefs related to randomness and control, but the intervention was described as a video-based program with discussion rather than interactive classroom activities. The claim therefore combines accurate study aims with an important methodological misattribution.
“The Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition (OGYÉI) estimated in 2023 that roughly 12% of Hungarian secondary school students engage in some form of online betting monthly.”
The 12% figure appears to be real, but the claim assigns it to the wrong institution. Available evidence ties the estimate to 2023 ESPAD data reported by Hungary’s National Focal Point and cited by the EUDA, not to a published OGYÉI estimate. It also refers specifically to 15-16-year-olds, not secondary school students as a whole.
“In 2021, the International Labour Organization stated that fishing has high rates of occupational accidents and work-related mortality compared with other productive activities, especially in artisanal fishing where informality predominates and labor protection systems are very limited.”
The core statement is well supported: ILO and independent evidence show fishing has very high occupational injury and mortality risks, with artisanal and informal fisheries often facing weaker protections. The limitation is that the provided evidence does not verify this exact wording in a specific 2021 ILO statement. Regional and fleet-level risk also varies, so the comparison should not be read as uniform everywhere.
“People need to drink extra water to compensate for dehydration caused by drinking coffee.”
The evidence does not support the idea that coffee generally dehydrates people enough to require extra water. In typical amounts, coffee contributes to daily fluid intake and does not cause meaningful net dehydration in most adults. A mild diuretic effect can occur at high caffeine doses, but that does not justify a blanket rule that people must compensate with extra water after drinking coffee.
“In Mexico, cancer accounts for approximately 14% of annual deaths.”
The 14% figure has some support in international modeled estimates, but Mexico’s direct national death registry data more often put cancer closer to about 12% of annual deaths. That gap is large enough to matter for a reader’s understanding. The statement therefore blends two different data approaches and overstates the share shown in recent registered deaths.
“Warburg-effect-related metabolic changes in cancer generate measurable biomarkers, including glucose and lactate, that can be used in cancer diagnostic strategies.”
The claim is broadly supported by the biomedical literature. Cancer-associated Warburg metabolism does produce measurable signals tied to increased glucose uptake and lactate production, and these can inform diagnostic strategies, especially FDG-PET. The main caveats are that FDG-PET tracks a glucose-analog tracer rather than direct glucose levels, lactate is less uniformly established in routine practice, and not all cancers show the same metabolic pattern.
“Most existing approaches to reducing academic procrastination focus primarily on either improving study environments or developing individual self-regulation skills, rather than combining both approaches.”
The literature supports the view that academic procrastination interventions are usually designed around a single target, especially individual self-regulation, while integrated approaches that combine personal-skill training with study-environment changes are less common. Reviews and commentaries repeatedly call for more holistic designs, which indicates such combined approaches are not yet the norm.
“Environmental factors such as lighting, air quality, physical comfort, and distractions can influence concentration and academic performance.”
The evidence strongly supports the claim. Multiple peer-reviewed reviews and institutional sources show that lighting, air quality and ventilation, thermal comfort, and noise or distractions can affect concentration, cognitive functioning, and academic performance. Results vary by setting and exposure level, but the statement is appropriately cautious because it says these factors can influence outcomes.
“Academic procrastination is common among university students.”
Available evidence strongly supports the claim. Multiple peer-reviewed studies find academic procrastination affects a large share of university students, with estimates varying by definition but consistently high enough to qualify as common. The main caveat is that some studies measure occasional procrastination while others measure frequent or chronic forms.
“Reducing dietary intake of added sugar increases testosterone levels in men.”
Evidence suggests sugar can be linked to lower testosterone, but it does not show that simply reducing added sugar reliably raises testosterone in men. The strongest studies show short-term testosterone dips after glucose and observational links with sugary drinks, while long-term diet studies usually mix sugar reduction with weight loss and other metabolic changes. The causal claim is stronger than the evidence supports.
“Sugar deficiency increases testosterone levels in men.”
The evidence does not support the idea that “sugar deficiency” raises testosterone in men. Studies more narrowly suggest that excess sugar or glucose loads can lower testosterone, and that cutting excessive sugar may improve levels in some metabolically unhealthy men. That is not the same as showing that a deficiency of sugar increases testosterone, especially across men in general.