EVIDENCE BASED PUBLIC HEALTH POLICY AND PRACTICE

Mumps and the media: changes in the reporting of mumps in response to newspaper coverage

Babatunde Olowokure¹, Lilian Clark¹, Alex J Elliot², Douglas Harding³ and Ann Fleming⁴

¹ Health Protection Agency, Regional Surveillance Unit (West Midlands), Birmingham, UK
² Birmingham Research Unit of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Lordswood, Harborne, Birmingham, UK
³ Health Protection Agency, Centre for Infections, London, UK
⁴ Health Protection Agency, West Midlands, Birmingham, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr B Olowokure
Health Protection Agency, Regional Surveillance Unit (West Midlands), 9th Floor, Ladywood House, 45 Stephenson Street, Birmingham B2 4DY, UK; babatunde.olowokure{at}hpa.org.uk

Objective: To determine the links between national newspaper coverage of mumps after a press release and increased reports of clinical mumps cases.

Design and setting: A cross sectional study involving people aged 15–24 years in the West Midlands, and England and Wales. Reported mumps cases were obtained from statutory notifications of infectious diseases to the Health Protection Agency and reports to the Royal College of General Practitioners Weekly Returns Service. Data on newspaper coverage was obtained by retrospectively reviewing the Health Protection Agency press archives.

Main outcome measure: The effect of newspaper coverage was assessed by examining the 4 weeks before the press release (weeks 15–18 of the year), a 2-week period that included the week of the press release (weeks 19–20) and 4 weeks after the press release (weeks 21–24).

Main results: Mumps notification rates were declining before increased newspaper coverage. Significant increases in national (from 28.3/100 000 population (95% CI 26.5 to 30.1) in weeks 18 to 42.8 (95% CI 40.6 to 45) in week 20) and local (from 9.8 (95% CI 7.4 to 12.1) to 21.2 (95% CI 17.7 to 24.6)) notification rates were seen after increased newspaper coverage. Reports rapidly declined after decreased media interest.

Conclusions: The reported incidence rate of mumps seems to be markedly influenced by the level of newspaper coverage. This has implications for surveillance activities.

Abbreviations: HPA, Health Protection Agency; NOID, notifications of infectious disease; RCGP, Royal College of General Practitioners; WRS, Weekly Returns Service

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

In this issue

Carlos Alvarez-Dardet and John R Ashton
J Epidemiol Community Health 2007 61: 369. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• (2007). BMJ press release led to increase in mumps notification. BMJ 334: 1189-1189 [Full Text]