Promoting Public Health >>Promoting Public Health among the general public>> Promoting Public Back Health through the Media

PROMOTING PUBLIC BACK HEALTH THROUGH THE MEDIA.

Background.

Available data show that the general public follows health information with interest, and when this information is comprehensible and accurate, it has positive results. Otherwise, when the messages given are not clear or are not properly presented, they can generate beliefs or attitudes that are counterproductive to public health.

Thus, the Foundation's criterion consists of basing its activities promoting public health on the results of scientific studies developed with sufficiently rigorous methodology so as to provide sufficiently reliable conclusions which can be communicated to the general public. Once this aspect is covered, the clearer the final message and the wider it is communicated, the greater its impact on public health.

As a consequence, the Foundation decided to study a way of using the enormous capacity of the media to spread reliable health messages. Thus, since 2002, the Foundation has been paying special interest to ensuring the diffusion, through the media, of the results of sufficiently rigorous studies from a scientific point of view and whose practical repercussions are reliable and can be applied by the general public.

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Objective.

To strengthen the media diffusion of clear, comprehensible messages coming from rigorous research projects which ensure their reliability so they can be applied by the general public.

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Description.

The Foundation promotes the communication through the media of the results of the scientific studies which correspond to the following profiles:

· They have been carried out with a rigorous research method that ensures the reliability of their results.

· Their conclusions are applicable in practice by the general public. Thus, for example, the results of studies on purely medical aspects are not included. Only those essentially on measures that can be applied by the general public or by patients are included.

· They are sufficiently novel or generic as to justify their diffusion through the media to the general public.

The diffusion of this information through the media is organized in collaboration with the leading Spanish news and communications agencies, and in each occasion the format these organizations consider most appropriate (for example periodical collaborations, press notes, press conferences, campaigns etc.) is used.

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Along with the Kovacs Foundation, the following have participated in this project.

The main Spanish information and news agencies on health subjects, with which the Foundation has collaboration agreements, as well as the general media.

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Status and Results.

In 2002 and 2003, the Foundation collaborated with Berbés Asociados and Altaveu Comunicaciones on this project, and established collaboration agreements with several communications groups such as Recoletos, the Grupo Serra and Telemedicine World.

Among the main concepts that have been communicated to the general public by means of this project during 2002 and 2003 are: eliminating the notion that bed rest is a proper treatment for back pain and replacing it with that of staying as active as the pain allows; factors associated with a greater risk of back problems among school children, and the mistaken belief that a very firm mattress should be used in the case of back problems when instead a medium firm mattress is more appropriate.

Some of these concepts and the studies on which they are based have been repeated by media internationally. For example, the new recommendation on mattress firmness for back pain patients has been taken up by the major international news sources (such as CNN and the Washington Post) as well as in written press, radio, and television on the five continents.

In a strictly Spanish setting, this activity entailed, in 2002, the publication of 230 articles in the press, with a - of 15,558,555 copies and an audience of 62,234,220 readers, the broadcast of 27 interviews or radio programs with an audience of 3,562,600 listeners, and the broadcast of 26 news bulletins and 4 television programs with an audience of 28,547,320 television viewers.

In 2003, 248 articles were published, with a diffusion of 17.426.816 copies and an audience of 69.032.992 readers and the broadcast of 29 interviews or radio programs with an audience of 9.843.622 listeners and the broadcast of 28 TV news bulletins with an audience of 24.550.202 television viewers.