Content analysis of cancer related nutritional information in Popular Iranian magazines

Objective (s): Due to the wide influence of public media، they become important communication channels for changing health beliefs and behaviors. One of the areas that have gained increased attention in public media is nutritional information. The goal of this study was to analyze nutritional information related to cancer published in popular Iranian Magazines during year 2012-2013. This was an applied study using a content analysis method. The data was collected using a checklist designed by the researcher. All massages printed in 173 issues of 8 most popular magazines were selected. Then a purposive sample of 295 massages from 96 magazine issues was analyzed. Findings showed that perversion trends had the highest (86. 8%) and treatments had the lowest (4. 7%) frequency. Pomegranate was the most commonly mentioned preventive food، while Mayonnaises was the most commonly mentioned carcinogen and Tangerine was the most commonly mentioned food for tratment. Among different types of cancer، more than half of the massages (51. 2%) mentioned cancer in general followed by breast cancer (13. 2%) and prostate cancer (10. 51%). The findings of this study showed that the main goal of these massages were to increase the readers'' information، although some doubts regarding the scientific credibility of the claims made in these massages still remain.