a Department of Health Sciences, School of Health Professions, Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Science , University of Missouri.
b Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Science , University of Missouri.
Health Commun. 2018 Sep;33(9):1151-1157. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2017.1333562. Epub 2017 Jun 28.
Health journalists frequently use narratives to bring news stories to life, with little understanding about how this influences the health behavior of readers. This study was designed to examine the effect of a New York Times health news article about a person who developed a life-threatening illness after using ibuprofen on readers' future use of ibuprofen. We recruited an Internet sample (N = 405) to participate in a longitudinal study examining ibuprofen use before, immediately following, and two weeks after reading the story. Ibuprofen use two-weeks after reading the heath news article was significantly lower than baseline use. Furthermore, intentions to use ibuprofen were also significantly reduced suggesting that the observed behavior change may persist beyond the two-week period studied. Health journalists should be cautious in their use of stories about health outcomes, particularly when those stories deviate from data about objective risks.
健康记者经常使用叙述来使新闻故事生动化，但对这如何影响读者的健康行为知之甚少。本研究旨在检验《纽约时报》一篇关于一个人在使用布洛芬后患上危及生命的疾病的健康新闻文章对读者未来使用布洛芬的影响。我们招募了一个互联网样本（N=405）参与一项纵向研究，在阅读故事之前、之后立即以及两周后检查布洛芬的使用情况。阅读健康新闻文章两周后，布洛芬的使用量明显低于基线使用量。此外，使用布洛芬的意愿也明显降低，这表明观察到的行为变化可能会持续到研究的两周后。健康记者在使用关于健康结果的故事时应该谨慎，特别是当这些故事偏离了关于客观风险的数据时。
