PS Health Reporting Process
PS aims to help you make sense of the overwhelming amount of health-related information online. We cut through the confusing jargon and offer expert-backed knowledge on an array of topics, whether you're looking to fact-check the latest wellness trend circulating on social media, need straightforward information about a health concern, or want to read personal health experiences.
When it comes to your well-being, we know how important it is to be able to trust the information you're getting. We take our health reporting seriously. Here's what we do to ensure the accuracy of everything we publish.
PS relies on trusted medical professionals, medical journals, and health organizations to create our Condition Center, but the information is not intended to serve as medical advice. Readers should always consult their doctors regarding their health and before beginning any course of medical treatment.
How We Report Our Health Content
We ground all of our health, nutrition, and fitness reporting in proper sourcing from a combination of authoritative experts, reputable organizations, legitimate peer-reviewed studies, and firsthand experience (when applicable).
While we strive to keep our content updated, older articles may contain out-of-date information or incomplete sourcing. Please email community@popsugar.com if you come across any inaccuracies.
Experts
At PS, we collaborate with experts who we believe are most qualified to speak to the specific issue we're covering.
We carefully vet our sources to ensure they're credentialed and up to date on the latest developments in their area of expertise.
Organizations
We also look to reputable health organizations to source information, such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, and Mayo Clinic. We make clear what information comes from these sources.
Studies
We use only recent medical and scientific studies in our health reporting. We aim to only draw information from studies published within the last five to eight years. In our articles, we make clear when a study uses human or animal subjects, whether the sample size is small or large, and whether it was conducted on a particular population. We link out to the study we're referencing whenever possible.
The Health Advisory Board
At the center of our health reporting is the Condition Center, a hub that includes explainers on health conditions and personal essays describing the experiences of those living with different conditions.
The content that makes up the Condition Center follows the same reporting guidelines as the rest of our health and fitness content. But because the Condition Center includes so much medical information, PS goes a step further to ensure the content is medically sound and relevant to our readers. To that end, to support the Condition Center, PS works with an advisory board composed of unpaid, unaffiliated, and trusted medical experts. Each member fact-checks Condition Center explainers to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date. The Condition Center Advisory Board members include:
How We Maintain Editorial Integrity
Shieva Ghofrany, MD, FACOG, board-certified ob-gyn at Coastal Obstetrics & Gynecology
Akua Ampadu, MD, board-certified internal medicine physician, blogger at DrAkuaMD.com, and advocate for holistic wellness
Micaela Bayard, MD, board-certified rheumatologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Natalie Jones, PsyD, LPCC, licensed psychotherapist, owner of Lifetime Counseling and Consulting, and host of podcast "A Date With Darkness"
Andrea C. Love, PhD, immunologist, microbiologist, founder of ImmunoLogic, columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, and executive director for the American Lyme Disease Foundation
Dendy Engelman, MD, FACMS, FAAD, board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon who specializes in medical and cosmetic dermatology
Our goal when building the Condition Center Advisory Board was to include industry leaders with expertise in the different facets of health we regularly report on, from sexual health to mental health to disease prevention. We sought out medical experts who'd continue to be active in their field, and whose work aligns with PS's core values. We regularly revisit the Advisory Board to assess adding new voices, to keep our panel of experts as dynamic as possible.
Our editorial team is made up of journalists with, collectively, decades of experience reporting on health. We work with writers we trust, and our writers and editors carefully edit and fact-check each article to ensure it's being held to rigorous journalistic standards.
We aim to avoid working with experts who are affiliated with specific brands, and if we do, we disclose their relevant affiliation in the article. When covering a new or trending health and wellness topic with minimal reputable or publicly available scientific research or data, we are candid about the limitations in our reporting and aim to provide a clear takeaway in covering said topic. We also strive to take care to research and write accurately about a trend's origins.
While our writers are permitted to write about products or services they've received for free, we require that they clearly disclose this in the article. We also do not guarantee coverage, or positive coverage, in exchange for free products or services, and make clear that any review we write will be honest and ethically sound. You can read more about Vox Media's Editorial Ethics & Guidelines here.
The health industry in the US often leaves out large groups of people. At PS, we're committed to reporting on information that pertains to all of our readers, including people of different races, sexual orientations, genders, abilities, sizes, and socioeconomic statuses.
When we're writing about a health issue, we note whether certain groups are more affected than others. When a source gives advice or suggestions, we ask how that advice can be tailored to different people; for instance, if an exercise can be modified to include people of different abilities or sizes.
At PS, it's our mission to show respect toward all people and treat them with dignity. As such, we're committed to using inclusive, conscientious language, which means not using racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, ageist, fatphobic, or classist language or terminology. This extends to the images we use alongside articles and their social media extensions; we aim to show a diversity of races, ethnicities, sizes, body types, abilities, religions, gender identities, and sexual orientations when applicable.
Our Commitment to Inclusion
