Coverage by the news media of the benefits and risks of medications
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: The news media are an important source of information about new medical treatments, but there is concern that some coverage may be inaccurate and overly enthusiastic. METHODS: We studied coverage by U.S. news media of the benefits and risks of three medications that are used to prevent major diseases. The medications were pravastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug for the prevention of cardiovascular disease; alendronate, a bisphosphonate for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis; and aspirin, which is used for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. We analyzed a systematic probability sample of 180 newspaper articles (60 for each drug) and 27 television reports that appeared between 1994 and 1998. RESULTS: Of the 207 stories, 83 (40 percent) did not report benefits quantitatively. Of the 124 that did, 103 (83 percent) reported relative benefits only, 3 (2 percent) absolute benefits only, and 18 (15 percent) both absolute and relative benefits. Of the 207 stories, 98 (47 percent) mentioned potential harm to patients, and only 63 (30 percent) mentioned costs. Of the 170 stories citing an expert or a scientific study, 85 (50 percent) cited at least one expert or study with a financial tie to a manufacturer of the drug that had been disclosed in the scientific literature. These ties were disclosed in only 33 (39 percent) of the 85 stories. CONCLUSIONS: News-media stories about medications may include inadequate or incomplete information about the benefits, risks, and costs of the drugs as well as the financial ties between study groups or experts and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
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Media outlets may spin and encourage dissemination of eye-catching, potentially overstated, inaccurate, and/or misleading headlines in order to gain larger audience size.
“Media outlets may spin [26–28] and encourage dissemination of eye-catching, potentially overstated, inaccurate [29], and/or misleading headlines in order to gain larger audience size [28, 30, 31].”
From Causal language and strength of inference in academic and media articles shared in social media (CLAIMS): A systematic review (2018) · cites this paper as [30]
The Conclusions (page unavailable) describe prior evidence of inaccurate coverage, overstatement, and sensationalism; the Results (page unavailable) show that medication stories often reported relative benefits without absolute benefits. These passages support concern about slanted coverage, but the paper does not establish that outlets disseminated misleading headlines to gain a larger audience. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Moynihan, R., Bero, L., Ross-Degnan, D., Henry, D., Lee, K., Watkins, J., Mah, C., & Soumerai, S. B.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- University of Newcastle Australia (AU)
- Venue
- New England Journal of Medicine
- Publisher
- Massachusetts Medical Society
- Published
- 2000-06
- Volume
- 342
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 1645-1650
- ISSN
- 0028-4793 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-4406
- OpenAlex
- W2324740040
- Semantic Scholar
- 7321cd5bfa4273c0f00a35df5f5046cc091396b7
- Cited by
- 500
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 15.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- New England Journal of Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- NOVA (University of Newcastle Australia) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare
- Social Sciences › Communication › Journalism and Media Studies
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Keywords
- news media coverage, drug benefits and risks, pravastatin, alendronate, aspirin, cardiovascular disease prevention, osteoporosis prevention, pharmaceutical industry conflicts of interest, drug costs
- MeSH terms
- Anticholesteremic Agents, Aspirin, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Drug Therapy, Fees, Pharmaceutical, Humans, Mass Media, Newspapers as Topic, Osteoporosis, Television, United States, Conflict of Interest, Pravastatin, Journalism, Medical, Risk Assessment, Alendronate, Disclosure, Biomedical Research, Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions
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