Health Information in the News Media: Evaluating Sources and Subject of Articles, and the Intention to Advertise

Providing of health information could lead to changes in health behaviors, and affect the perception of diseases, treatments, and medications. It might also affect the choice of use of health care services and may affect health status [1-2]. The aim of this research is to identify the sources of health information, whether or not the advertisement is included, and the topic in the news. Based on these results, we investigated the accuracy of information, the content of information provided mainly, and the severity of advertising through the form of news. Method We analyzed 2,832 health information news articles published in the 11 Korean daily newspapers for 1 year from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. News articles about specific people, policies, and events were excluded from the analysis. In the case of source, it is classified into: 1) government agency or public institution, 2) medical staff, hospital, university or research institute, 3) company, 4) journal. If there are multiple sources, all duplicate sources are coded. If the source is not provided in the content of the article, it is coded as 'No Source'. In the case of advertising, we coded the intention of the advertisement when two or more of the company name, the release date, the price of the specific product are listed, or the specific hospital name and treatment method are stated. Subjects were classified into one of the following four categories: 1) newly developed therapy or diagnosis, 2) information on existing medical knowledge including common sense in medicine, 3) newly discovered medical knowledge or published papers, and 4) health statistics. Results Of the articles that were analyzed, there were 308 articles without sources, accounting for 10.9% of the total. The articles from medical staff or hospitals accounted for the highest percentage of 57.1% of all articles related to health information. 31.2% of the total articles were from government or public institutions, and 25.6% were articles from journals. There were 320 cases (11.3%) that the news source is a company. There was a significant difference in the ratio of the intention of the advertisement according to the sources (p <0.001), especially, when the source was company, 92.5% of them included advertisement, which was higher than news articles from other sources. In 2018, the most frequently addressed topics in health information news articles were information on existing medical knowledge including common sense in medicine, followed by newly discovered medical knowledge or published papers, health statistics, and newly developed therapy or diagnosis. Discussion The news media is one of the main methods to obtain health information, but many of the articles have unclear sources, suggesting possibility that news articles may provide inaccurate information. Also, in case that the source is a company, the rate of including advertisement is high. Based on these results, it may be necessary to acquire information selectively when obtaining health information through news articles.