Quality of Health Information in Select General Readership Magazines, 2005-2008

The Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) are a set of 10 high-priority public health issues in the United States. These indicators are intended to help everyone easily understand and improve personal health, the health of families and communities. Beyond informing individuals, the mass media can play an important role in setting the public agenda and stimulating public attention to issues. Purpose: To evaluate health-related articles, and their association with the Leading Health Indicators, in mass-circulating general readership magazines. Methods: The 2007 Magazine Publishers of America list of leading magazines was used to select magazines. Researchers were interested in general readership magazines that did not have a target audience based on sex, hobbies, geographic location, or age. General readership magazines, listed in the top 35 based on circulation, were considered with four magazines selected: Reader's Digest; Time; Newsweek; and U.S. News and World Report. ProQuest was searched to obtain all health-related articles (n=55) available between July 2005 and August 2008. Articles were assessed on their relation to LHIs; sources of information used; presentation of incidence and prevalence statistics; risk factor presentation; and prevention measures cited. Results: Each LHI was addressed in at least one article except for substance abuse. The most frequent LHIs addressed were Overweight and Obesity in 21.4% of the articles and Mental Health in 19% of the articles. Many articles identified more than one source of information with experts (i.e., MDs or PhDs) as the most frequent source of information (92.9% of articles). Other sources of information included research institutions (40.5%); government sources (26.2%); refereed journals (23.8%); and foundations (11.9%). Incidence and prevalence statistics were presented in a number of the articles with the general magnitude of morbidity and mortality being cited most often. Modifiable and nonmodifiable risk factors were presented in less than 25% of the articles. Prevention measures were also identified in several articles with primary prevention being presented seven times more frequently than secondary prevention measures and three times more frequently than tertiary prevention measures. The most frequently cited primary prevention measures were physical activity and dietary modification. Conclusions: Mass media can be a valuable tool for dissemination and stimulation of public attention to high-priority public health issues. Enhanced coordination of dissemination efforts are needed between health educators and members of the press to ensure accurate, balanced, detailed and comprehensible health information. Learning Objective: Identify qualities of media articles necessary for effective dissemination of health information.