What does the research mean??

The papers always have a knack of sensationalising the results of research. The hot topics are usually incidence of cancer in different groups, effects of diet and exercise on health, breastfeeding and immunisations.
Probably the most famous study in relation to children in recent years and which caused a storm in the media was the MMR research which claimed to have established a link between the jab and the incidence of autism. The doctor which carried out the study has been prevented from doing any further research as he was found to have been paid by parents of children with autism to carry out the research, providing significant bias. The ethics of the study were also found to be questionable along with other flaws in the study which mean that the results cannot be reliable. However the media grasped this study and caused panic and worry amongst hundreds of parents.
I used to gasp at the headlines and be drawn into articles reporting the research. However since studying a Research Module (yawn) for my Masters I look at all research with a far more critical eye. There are a few useful things to consider before deciding whether the results from a study are worth their weight in gold:
Who conducted the study and what was their vested interest? e.g a pharmaceutical company testing its own drug may always find favourable results for their product. This affects validity and reliability of the study.
How many participants? If there are only 100 people in a study this cannot be generalised to the whole population. 7000 participants goes more of a way to finding trends.
Was ethics approved?
Was it a double blinded randomised controlled trial? This is where participants and testers don't know which intervention they are receiving/giving. This means any reponses and results are more reliable.
Breast cancer studies often find that it occurs more often in the Northern Hemisphere but a doctor on the radio raised an interesting point. Do tights therefore cause breast cancer because women in the Northern Hemisphere are more likely to wear tights? Ridiculous yes but there are too many variables in our lives that it is not possible to control or exclude while conducting research.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we should not be spooked by the way research is reported in the media, instead we should look a bit closer at the studies ourselves to make a more informed decision.