A study for the credibility of dermatologic articles in free newspapers

Background: There has been increasing concern about dermatological health information among the general population. Despite the substantial amount of dermatological articles in the mass media, little is known about their credibility. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the credibility of dermatological articles in free newspapers, one of the recently popular mass media. Methods: Articles including dermatological information were selected from 5 free newspapers from July 2006 to February 2007. They were classified according to theme and type of consultant and were evaluated for their credibility. Results: A total of 361 articles were identified. Articles about self skin care (26.6%) were most frequent, followed by cosmetic therapy (18.7%), acne (17.1%), hair (16.5%) and atopic dermatitis (6.3%). As the consultants, dermatologists (38.0%) were most common, followed by oriental medical doctors (21.5%), non-medical consultants doctors (13.3%) and other medical specialists (13.0%). There were also articles without consultant input (14.6%). Credibility assessment revealed that 213 (67.4%) articles were credible, but 91 (28.8%) were incredible and 12 (3.8%) could not be evaluated based on the dermatological references. While most of the information from dermatologists and other medical specialists were-credible, those from the other types of consultants or without consultant input showed a much higher proportion of incredible information. Conclusion: This study revealed that there are many incredible dermatological articles in free newspapers, most of which are consulted from those other than dermatologists or other medical specialists. Therefore we suggest that dermatologists need to increase their public health role in the mass media.