Department of Medical Informatics, Graduate School of Medical Science, Yamagata University, Yamagata.
Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2012;5:83-90. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S33661. Epub 2012 Aug 2.
The sharing of information between the lay public and medical professionals is crucial to the conduct of personalized medicine using genomic information in the near future. Mass media, such as newspapers, can play an important role in disseminating scientific information. However, studies on the role of newspaper coverage of genome-related articles are highly limited. We investigated the coverage of genomic medicine in five major Japanese newspapers (Asahi, Mainichi, Yomiuri, Sankei, and Nikkei) using Nikkei Telecom and articles in scientific journals in PubMed from 1995 to 2009. The number of genome-related articles in all five newspapers temporarily increased in 2000, and began continuously decreasing thereafter from 2001 to 2009. Conversely, there was a continuous increasing trend in the number of genome-related articles in PubMed during this period. The numbers of genome-related articles among the five major newspapers from 1995 to 2009 were significantly different (P = 0.002). Commentaries, research articles, and articles about companies were the most frequent in 2001 and 2003, when the number of genome-related articles transiently increased in the five newspapers. This study highlights the significant gap between newspaper coverage and scientific articles in scientific journals.
在不久的将来，将信息在普通大众和医疗专业人员之间共享对于使用基因组信息进行个性化医疗至关重要。大众媒体，如报纸，可以在传播科学信息方面发挥重要作用。然而，关于报纸报道与基因组相关文章的作用的研究非常有限。我们使用 Nikkei Telecom 和 PubMed 中的科学期刊文章调查了五家主要日本报纸（朝日、每日、读卖、产经和日经）对基因组医学的报道。1995 年至 2009 年间，所有五家报纸中与基因组相关的文章数量暂时在 2000 年增加，并从 2001 年开始持续减少到 2009 年。相反，在此期间，PubMed 中与基因组相关的文章数量呈持续上升趋势。1995 年至 2009 年间，五家主要报纸中与基因组相关的文章数量存在显著差异（P = 0.002）。评论、研究文章和关于公司的文章在 2001 年和 2003 年最为频繁，当时五家报纸中与基因组相关的文章数量短暂增加。本研究强调了报纸报道与科学期刊中科学文章之间的显著差距。
