Newspaper coverage of diseases and actual mortality statistics

There was no correspondence between the press's coverage of disease and mortality statistics and the actual mortality statistics for these diseases were compared.

Abstract

Abstract The number of newspaper articles about various diseases and the amount of attention given to these diseases by 7 British national daily newspapers were compared with the actual mortality statistics for these diseases. Spearman rank correlations showed that there was no correspondence between the press's coverage of disease and mortality statistics.