1. Press releases by academic medical centers: not so academic?
- Author
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Woloshin S, Schwartz LM, Casella SL, Kennedy AT, and Larson RJ
- Subjects
- Animals, Humans, United States, Academic Medical Centers, Biomedical Research standards, Mass Media
- Abstract
Background: The news media are often criticized for exaggerated coverage of weak science. Press releases, a source of information for many journalists, might be a source of those exaggerations., Objective: To characterize research press releases from academic medical centers., Design: Content analysis., Setting: Press releases from 10 medical centers at each extreme of U.S. News & World Report's rankings for medical research., Measurements: Press release quality., Results: Academic medical centers issued a mean of 49 press releases annually. Among 200 randomly selected releases analyzed in detail, 87 (44%) promoted animal or laboratory research, of which 64 (74%) explicitly claimed relevance to human health. Among 95 releases about primary human research, 22 (23%) omitted study size and 32 (34%) failed to quantify results. Among all 113 releases about human research, few (17%) promoted studies with the strongest designs (randomized trials or meta-analyses). Forty percent reported on the most limited human studies--those with uncontrolled interventions, small samples (<30 participants), surrogate primary outcomes, or unpublished data--yet 58% lacked the relevant cautions., Limitation: The effects of press release quality on media coverage were not directly assessed., Conclusion: Press releases from academic medical centers often promote research that has uncertain relevance to human health and do not provide key facts or acknowledge important limitations., Primary Funding Source: National Cancer Institute.
- Published
- 2009
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