School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, Sheffield, UK.
Health Expect. 2011 Mar;14(1):38-47. doi: 10.1111/j.1369-7625.2010.00617.x.
Sensationalized reporting styles and a distorted framing of health-care issues in newspapers may trigger inappropriate commissioning decisions. We evaluated UK press coverage of pre-licensing access to trastuzumab (Herceptin) for early breast cancer as a case study.
Content analysis of newspaper articles published between April 2005 and May 2006 were coded by two researchers for interest groups represented, claims made and sensationalized reporting. Disagreements in coding were resolved by a third researcher. One thousand and ninety published articles were identified in the study period and a 20% sample (n = 218) was included in the content analysis. Most articles (76%, 95% CI 71-82) included claims about the clinical benefits of trastuzumab, and this was significantly higher than those expressing the uncertainty surrounding such benefits (6%, 95% CI 3-9) or those that discussed the potential harms (5%, 95% CI 2-8). Articles were significantly more likely to feature claims made by a breast cancer survivor or family member than any other interest group (P < 0.0001). Almost half of the articles carried some message to the effect that trastuzumab would make the difference between life and death (47%, 95% CI 40-53). Over a quarter (28%, 95% CI 22-34) suggested that trastuzumab is a 'miracle drug' or similar.
The benefits of drugs are highlighted, frequently using sensationalist language, without equal consideration of uncertainty or risks. Health-care purchasers should express decisions in opportunity cost terms; journalists should give fairer coverage to such arguments.
报纸上耸人听闻的报道风格和对医疗保健问题的扭曲框架可能会引发不适当的委托决策。我们评估了英国媒体对曲妥珠单抗（赫赛汀）用于早期乳腺癌的预先许可准入的报道，以此作为案例研究。
对 2005 年 4 月至 2006 年 5 月期间发表的报纸文章进行内容分析，由两位研究人员对所代表的利益团体、提出的主张和耸人听闻的报道进行编码。编码方面的分歧由第三位研究人员解决。在研究期间确定了 1090 篇已发表的文章，并对 20%的样本（n=218）进行了内容分析。大多数文章（76%，95%CI71-82）包含了关于曲妥珠单抗临床益处的主张，这明显高于那些表达围绕这些益处的不确定性（6%，95%CI3-9）或那些讨论潜在危害的文章（5%，95%CI2-8）。文章更有可能以乳腺癌幸存者或家庭成员提出的主张为特色，而不是任何其他利益团体（P<0.0001）。近一半的文章传达了这样一种信息，即曲妥珠单抗将是生死攸关的区别（47%，95%CI40-53）。超过四分之一（28%，95%CI22-34）暗示曲妥珠单抗是一种“神奇药物”或类似的药物。
药物的益处被突出强调，经常使用耸人听闻的语言，而没有同等考虑不确定性或风险。医疗保健购买者应该用机会成本术语来表达决策；记者应该更公平地报道这些论点。
