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Reliability of Health Information in the Media as Defined by Finnish Physicians

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Well-Being in the Information Society. Fighting Inequalities (WIS 2018)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 907))

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Abstract

Mass media is an important forum for the interaction between science and the general public, and media participation has been recognized by the Finnish Medical Association as a duty of physicians. Physicians are an important source of health information for journalists and their perceptions of reliability may influence which medias they are willing to collaborate with. In this study, Finnish physicians were asked to evaluate and define the characteristics of reliability for health information in the media. The survey was filled out by 266 physicians, who estimated that the most reliable mass media sources of health information are scientific publications, medical associations, universities, The Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, and other non-profit research centres. The lowest reliability scores were given to online discussion forums, entities representing complementary, and alternative medicine and individual patients. Female physicians and older physicians gave most health information sources higher scores than men or younger respondents. These results highlight a potential conflict between the need to translate scientific language to a form understandable to the general public, and a demand placed by physicians on journalism to be as scientifically accurate and precise as possible. In order to best convey their message to the general public, the professional skills of journalists should be utilised by physicians to overcome this issue.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TOTEK Unit, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Ulla Ahlmén-Laiho

  2. Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Faculty of Medicine, Turku University, Turku, Finland

    Ulla Ahlmén-Laiho

  3. Department of Public Health, Medical Faculty, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Sakari Suominen & Risto Tuominen

  4. Department of Public Health, Skövde University, Skövde, Sweden

    Sakari Suominen

  5. Tiedetoimittajat Ry, Salo, Finland

    Ulla Järvi

  6. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

    Risto Tuominen

Authors
  1. Ulla Ahlmén-Laiho
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  2. Sakari Suominen
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  3. Ulla Järvi
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  4. Risto Tuominen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulla Ahlmén-Laiho .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland

    Hongxiu Li

  2. University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Ágústa Pálsdóttir

  3. Fachhochschule Flensburg, Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Roland Trill

  4. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Reima Suomi

  5. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Yevgeniya Amelina

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Ahlmén-Laiho, U., Suominen, S., Järvi, U., Tuominen, R. (2018). Reliability of Health Information in the Media as Defined by Finnish Physicians. In: Li, H., Pálsdóttir, Á., Trill, R., Suomi, R., Amelina, Y. (eds) Well-Being in the Information Society. Fighting Inequalities. WIS 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 907. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97931-1_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97931-1_15

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97931-1

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