“But all too frequently, what is conveyed about health by many other journalists is wrong or misleading.”
This is the theme of a recent commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) by Susan Dentzer, Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs and an on-air health policy analyst for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Ms. Dentzer outlines the pitfalls of health journalism, and offers some potential solutions for those being interviewed to help reporters get it right.
“Often these (health) messages are delivered effectively by seasoned reporters who perform thoughtfully even in the face of breaking news and tight deadlines. But all too frequently, what is conveyed about health by many other journalists is wrong or misleading. Some distortion is attributable to ignorance or an inability to interpret and convey the nuanced results of clinical studies. And some [distortion] is due to uncertainty about journalists' proper role: Is our job to describe the bigger picture, or simply to report what is "new"? Should we present black-and-white versions of reality that lend themselves to stark headlines, rather than grayer complexities that are harder to distill into simple truths?”
“One could conclude that the news media largely ignores most drug-safety or efficacy issues until, for whatever reason, a new study appears or someone shows up at the
U.S.
Capitol to talk about such concerns.”
She goes on to point out that two glaring misrepresentations in the press, including the coverage of the Ezetimibe and Simvastatin in Hypercholesterolemia Enhances Atherosclerosis Regression (ENHANCE) trial), where the results reported had little or no relationship to the actual results and scared off millions of patients from what may end up being a beneficial drug.
The other, the Women’s Health Study, which has had many years of misrepresentation from the press, including reporting that low fat diets offer no health benefit, which was totally wrong.
Susan makes some great points – Highly recommended reading.
NEJM: Communicating Medical News — Pitfalls of Health Care Journalism