Take this wildly misleading article from CNN: Not exercising worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease, study reveals .

It’s one example — among many generated daily by various news outlets — of how a mundane observational study can be transformed into viral internet gold. In the days after it was published, this story was liked and shared hundreds times and sparked dozens of copycat articles.

We’ve dissected the methodology behind this story to create a step-by-step guide to making health care clickbait. Please note that this is intended for educational purposes only. It’s not recommended that you try this at home.

1. Find an observational study on a topic that will grab readers.

Observational studies often deal with actionable things people love to obsess over — nutrition, exercise, sleep, sex, etc.

They use observational data, such as a survey or a database of medical records, to find statistical associations between two variables.

Research based on observational data is also in abundant supply. Many institutions are eager to promote such studies even though – as we’ve pointed out over the life of this 12-year old project – they can’t prove cause and effect.

In this case, CNN reported on a study from the Cleveland Clinic that explored the connection between aerobic fitness and long-term mortality.

Researchers examined data from 122,009 people who took a treadmill stress test at the clinic over a 24-year period. They also looked at Social Security data and medical records to determine how many subsequently died.

The study didn’t actually look at any data on exercise, even though “exercise” ended up in the headline.