Assessing article related to health in newspapers with a wide circulation in IR. IRAN -2005

Nowadays, newspapers are of high importance in raising community awareness due to their large daily circulation, national distribution, appropriate price and accessibility. The present study was conducted to assess the quality and quantity of published health research results and news in three national broadsheet newspapers with large daily circulation.

In this cross-sectional study, Sixty issues of three newspapers named Iran, Keyhan and Hamshahri have been assessed in terms of the number of published health article using a validate questionnaires.

In this study, 696 health related articles were found one forth of them represented the results of different health researches. The mean number of these articles in each edition was 3.8. The sources of most of these articles were interviews of the journalists and national news agencies. Most of health or health research results have been situated in knowledge and technology sections and more than 70% of articles were news-type. More than 50% of health related articles provided health promotion results. 70% of health research articles had been conducted in developed countries. Target group of mentioned news and research results were public community.

Media has effective role in transferring health information. It is obvious that empowerment of researchers on how to disseminate knowledge based on their audience have important roles in public health promotion.