Medicines in the news

Subtitle: Content analysis of drug articles in four Vietnamese newspapers

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Finer, David^; | Tomson, Göran

Affiliations: Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of International Health (IHCAR), Karolinska Institutet, SE‐171 76 Stockholm, Sweden

Note: [] Correspondence to: David Finer, IHCAR, Karolinska Institutet, SE‐171 76 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: +46 8 51776489; Fax: +46 8 311590; E‐mail: david.finer@ phs.ki.se.

Abstract: The advent of market economy since 1986 in Vietnam has thrown the drug market into chaos with potential risks to consumers from unsupervised widespread self‐medication. In the virtual absence of non‐commercial drug information to consumers, the mass media may play a key role. The objectives of the study were to describe drug information in the Vietnamese press, particularly in terms of risk/benefit, using a combined journalistic‐pharmaceutical coding instrument. A quantitative content analysis was made of all articles (n={}620) on medicinal drugs, including traditional medicines, published 1993–1994 in the four Vietnamese newspapers ‘Phu Nu Viet Nam’ (‘Women in Vietnam’), ‘Suc Khoe’ (‘Health’), ‘Dai doan ket’ (‘Great Unity’) and ‘Tien Phong’ (‘Vanguard’). As this is to the best of our knowledge the first study of its kind in a low‐income country, the diversity of coverage in the newspapers as well as the sheer volume of drug articles were noteworthy findings. Almost half (44%) of the articles were about traditional medicines, 20% about anti‐infectives, and 15% about gastro‐intestinal/alimentary drugs. Over half of the articles on modern medicines dealt with drugs on Vietnam’s Essential Drug List. Headline tendency was unbalanced with 39% positive, 55% neutral and 6% negative. Risk/benefit information was inadequate with information on side‐effects provided in 12%, and on counter‐indications in 13% of all articles. Exactly half (50%) of articles mentioned dosage, but only 2% drug price. Authors were mainly doctors, pharmacists and journalists. The four newspapers differed in profiles. ‘Health’ did the best job of providing drug information followed by the women’s newspaper, the youth paper and the senior citizen paper. However, in general, the relative paucity of information about side effects, counterindications, and drug prices, as well as the lack of independent journalistic drug reporting gives some cause for concern.

Journal: International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 109-122, 1999