title: Reporting on health-related research in two prestigious Brazilian newspapers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The dissemination of health-related news through newspapers can influence the behavior of patients and of health care providers. We conducted a study to analyze the characteristics of health-related research published by two leading Brazilian newspapers.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively evaluated health-related news published in the electronic versions of the newspapers Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo over a period of three months (July through September, 2009). Only articles mentioning medical research were included. The articles were categorized according to topic, source, study location and the nature of the headline. We also analyzed the presence of background information on the topic, citations of medical periodicals, national contextualization and references to products or companies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Scientific research articles corresponded to 57% and 20% of health-related articles published by Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo, respectively. Folha de São Paulo published significantly more articles about national studies, and most articles were written by its own staff. In contrast, most articles in O Estado de São Paulo came from news agencies. Folha de São Paulo also better contextualized its reports for Brazilian society. O Estado de São Paulo tended to cite the name of the periodical in which the study was published more frequently, but their articles lacked national contextualization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed a significant difference in the way in which the studied newspapers report on health-related research. Folha de São Paulo tends to write its own articles and more frequently publishes the results of national research, whereas O Estado de São Paulo publishes articles that originate in news agencies, most of which have little national contextualization.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Advanced Studies in Journalism, Institute of Language Studies, University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil. ricardoateixeira@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Ricardo Afonso
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carlini
authors.forename: Arthur de Carvalho
authors.initials: Ade C
authors.lastname: Jatobá e Sousa
authors.forename: Paula Teixeira
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Vera Regina Toledo
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Camargo
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vogt
authors.forename: Li Min
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001938:Brazil; D006266:Health Education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D009524:Newspapers as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies