Content Analysis of Health-related Articles of the Most Widely Circulated Newspapers in Iran; with Emphasis on Health Education and Promotion

In order to achieve optimal health, every community needs collaboration between its community sectors that affect policy makers. The aim of this research was the content analysis of health-related articles in important newspapers of the Islamic republic of Iran with emphasis on health education and promotion in 2008. In this cross-sectional study we used the content analysis method. Study samples were the publication from fourteen days of ten important newspapers in Iran, 114 issues in total. Data were analyzed by SPSS software via chi-square test and P-value < 0.05 was considered as significant. Twelve newspapers had no health-related articles and the rest had 495 health-related articles. Only 2.57% of newspapers were allocated to health topics. Only 7.7% of health-related articles were published in the principal page of the newspaper, 41% of health-related articles were the fourth title and 58.7% had no pictures. Disease topics with 44.7% had the highest rate of published topics. Based on the low rate of health-related articles and the lack of focus on health-related topics in Iranian newspapers, it seems necessary to familiarize health experts with the capacity of media for health promotion and to take new approaches to planning media that address health issues.