ACCURACY OF HEALTH RESEARCH REPORTED IN THE POPULAR PRESS - BREAST-CANCER AND MAMMOGRAPHY

The print media's dissemination of health information is important in shaping public beliefs and possibly behavior. Print media reports, som e of them conflicting, concerning breast cancer and mammography have b een prominent, leading to an intense and confused public reaction. Thi s investigation evaluated the accuracy of popular accounts of research pertaining to breast cancer and mammography appearing in magazines an d newspapers during a 2-year period. The reports were evaluated in two ways: (a) the adequacy of the information provided for locating the c ited piece of research and (b) the accuracy of the information conveye d about the research. For the latter analysis, discrepancies between t he original scientific publication and the popular account were catego rized. In 116 articles, there were 113 citations to a scientific study ; 60 of these citations were traceable to the original source. Of thes e 60 traceable citations, 42 content-based inaccuracies were found. Th e results are discussed in terms of implications for communication bet ween the scientific community and journalists.