Table 5.
Claim category and explanations of claim categories extracted manually from all noncredible sentences from the cholesterol and statins topic.
| Claim category | Claim explanation |
| (stat) Side effects | Statins’ side effects outweigh the benefits |
| (chol) Not an indicator of CVDa risk | Total cholesterol is not an indicator of CVD |
| Diet as good as drugs | Aggregation of different dietary interventions to lower cholesterol, triglycerides, or sugars |
| (chol) Too low is harmful | Too low cholesterol level is harmful |
| Lifestyle changes are enough | People can lower cholesterol level just by developing good habits and eating a proper diet |
| Big pharma | People (eg, physicians and pharmaceutical company workers) make considerable profit through prescribing statins |
| Inflammation theory | It is inflammation that causes CVD, not excessive cholesterol level; cholesterol is an effect, not a cause |
| (stat) Cause diabetes | Statins increase the risk of diabetes |
| (stat) Not needed | Statins are given to healthy people who do not need them |
| (chol) Makes cells and protects nerves | Cholesterol produces hormones that make body cells and protect nerves |
| (stat) Not effective | Statins do not fulfill their role in reducing the risk of CVD |
| (stat) Prescription based solely on (chol) level | Statin prescription is based solely on total cholesterol level |
| Detailed data | Sentences contain detailed data, for example, “LDLb cholesterol level should not exceed 200 md/dL” |
| (stat) Cause cognitive impairment | Statin consumption causes different forms of cognitive impairment (including memory loss and slow information processing) |
| (stat) Not studied enough | Statins’ effectiveness is not studied enough |
| High HDLc neutralizes high LDL | HDL is a so-called good cholesterol, whereas LDL is a so-called bad cholesterol; high levels of the former neutralize negative consequences of high levels of the latter |
| Harmful CoQ10d loss | Statin-related CoQ10 loss is harmful |
| (chol) Consumption not an issue | People should not worry about cholesterol consumption |
| Lifestyle versus statins | Lifestyle changes are more effective ways to prevent CVDs than statin consumption |
| No liver function monitoring | Monitoring of liver function tests is no longer recommended in patients on statin therapy |
| Miscellaneous | None of the above |
aCVD: cardiovascular disease.
bLDL: low-density lipoprotein.
cHDL: high-density lipoprotein.
dCoQ10: Coenzyme Q10.