title: [How much can we trust health related information provided by mass media in Argentina?].
abstract: To evaluate the certainty and accuracy of the healthcare information provided by the mass media in Argentina, a group of senior medical students, blind to the study objectives, identified healthcare related statements transmitted through mass media. These findings were challenged against the recommendations of a group of physicians trained in evidence-based decision making (EBDM). We compared the strength and direction of the mass media recommendations with those of experts on EBDM. Eighty one recommendations/questions were identified and answered by the experts on EBDM, 15 with high, 18 with moderate, 30 with low and 18 with very low quality of evidence. Only 53% (CI95% 42-64%) of the mass media recommendations agreed with the expert recommendation in direction (for or against) and 28% (CI95% 18-39%) were classified as inappropriate (significant discrepancies both in direction and strength). Subgroup analysis revealed that 71% (CI95% 56-86%) of there commendations made by professionals in mass media agreed with experts in direction and 17% (IC95% 6-33%) were classified as inappropriate, OR = 0.35 (CI95% 0.1-1.1) compared to recommendations in mass media by non-professionals. We conclude that the healthcare information provided by mass media in Argentina is unreliable; this fact can probably have a negative impact in the health system performance and physician-patient relationship.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Medicina Basada en Pruebas, Servicio de Clínica Médica, Hospital Alemán, Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail ariel.izcovich@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Izcovich
authors.forename: Juan Martín
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Criniti
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Popoff
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: González Malla
authors.forename: Hugo N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Catalano
mesh_terms: D001118:Argentina; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000592:standards*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media / Q000592:standards*; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013337:Students, Medical; D035502:Trust
keywords: health related information; massmedia; recommendations