Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.

<h4>Background</h4>Media coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers.<h4>M...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Nicola Latronico, Ottavia Manenti, Luca Baini, Frank A Rasulo
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2011
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/0d01322b83cb46898934768a58e0fa23
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:0d01322b83cb46898934768a58e0fa23
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:0d01322b83cb46898934768a58e0fa232021-11-18T06:55:52ZQuality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0018706https://doaj.org/article/0d01322b83cb46898934768a58e0fa232011-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/21533275/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203<h4>Background</h4>Media coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>Our search covered a 7-month period from July 1, 2008, to February 28, 2009, using the online searchable databases of four major Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Avvenire. Medical reporting was judged as complete if three core VS characteristics were described: patient unawareness of self and the environment, preserved wakefulness (eyes open), and spontaneous respiration (artificial ventilator not needed). We retrieved 2,099 articles, and 967 were dedicated to VS. Of these, 853 (88.2%) were non-medical and mainly focused on describing the political, legal, and ethical aspects of VS. Of the 114 (11.8%) medical articles, 53 (5.5%) discussed other medical problems such as death by dehydration, artificial nutrition, neuroimaging, brain death, or uterine hemorrhage, and 61 (6.3%) described VS. Of these 61, only 18 (1.9%) reported all three CORE characteristics and were judged complete. We found no differences among the four investigated newspapers (Fisher's exact = 0.798), and incomplete articles were equally distributed between journalistic pieces and expert opinions (χ(2) = 1.8854, P = 0.170). Incorrect descriptions of VS were significantly more common among incomplete articles (13 of 43 vs. 1 of 18; Fisher's exact P = 0.047).<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Core VS characteristics are rarely reported in Italian newspaper articles, which can alter adequate comprehension of new developments and (mis)inform political, legal, and ethical decisions.Nicola LatronicoOttavia ManentiLuca BainiFrank A RasuloPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 4, p e18706 (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Nicola Latronico Ottavia Manenti Luca Baini Frank A Rasulo Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.
description	<h4>Background</h4>Media coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers.<h4>Methodology/principal findings</h4>Our search covered a 7-month period from July 1, 2008, to February 28, 2009, using the online searchable databases of four major Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Avvenire. Medical reporting was judged as complete if three core VS characteristics were described: patient unawareness of self and the environment, preserved wakefulness (eyes open), and spontaneous respiration (artificial ventilator not needed). We retrieved 2,099 articles, and 967 were dedicated to VS. Of these, 853 (88.2%) were non-medical and mainly focused on describing the political, legal, and ethical aspects of VS. Of the 114 (11.8%) medical articles, 53 (5.5%) discussed other medical problems such as death by dehydration, artificial nutrition, neuroimaging, brain death, or uterine hemorrhage, and 61 (6.3%) described VS. Of these 61, only 18 (1.9%) reported all three CORE characteristics and were judged complete. We found no differences among the four investigated newspapers (Fisher's exact = 0.798), and incomplete articles were equally distributed between journalistic pieces and expert opinions (χ(2) = 1.8854, P = 0.170). Incorrect descriptions of VS were significantly more common among incomplete articles (13 of 43 vs. 1 of 18; Fisher's exact P = 0.047).<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Core VS characteristics are rarely reported in Italian newspaper articles, which can alter adequate comprehension of new developments and (mis)inform political, legal, and ethical decisions.
format	article
author	Nicola Latronico Ottavia Manenti Luca Baini Frank A Rasulo
author_facet	Nicola Latronico Ottavia Manenti Luca Baini Frank A Rasulo
author_sort	Nicola Latronico
title	Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.
title_short	Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.
title_full	Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.
title_fullStr	Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.
title_full_unstemmed	Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.
title_sort	quality of reporting on the vegetative state in italian newspapers. the case of eluana englaro.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/0d01322b83cb46898934768a58e0fa23
work_keys_str_mv	AT nicolalatronico qualityofreportingonthevegetativestateinitaliannewspapersthecaseofeluanaenglaro AT ottaviamanenti qualityofreportingonthevegetativestateinitaliannewspapersthecaseofeluanaenglaro AT lucabaini qualityofreportingonthevegetativestateinitaliannewspapersthecaseofeluanaenglaro AT frankarasulo qualityofreportingonthevegetativestateinitaliannewspapersthecaseofeluanaenglaro
_version_	1718424149154594816

Quality of reporting on the vegetative state in Italian newspapers. The case of Eluana Englaro.

Ejemplares similares