Elsevier

Mayo Clinic Proceedings

Volume 81, Issue 10, October 2006, Pages 1332-1336
Mayo Clinic Proceedings

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Coverage of Coma in Headlines of US Newspapers From 2001 Through 2005

https://doi.org/10.4065/81.10.1332Get rights and content

OBJECTIVE

To review journalists' preferences and accuracy in reporting comatose states.

METHODS

Using the Lexis-Nexis database, we selected newspaper headlines from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2005, that included the words coma, comatose, unconsciousness, vegetative state, awakening, and brain dead.

RESULTS

We identified 340 stories by headlines. The median age of persons in coma was 26 years. Coma cases in men were twice as common as those in women. In 71% of coma cases, the cause of coma was associated with motor vehicle crashes or violence. Persistent vegetative state was reported in 25 articles (7%), frequently when a family or physician conflict emerged. In 33 stories (10%), coma was medically induced but not mentioned in the headline. Three “miracle” recoveries involved resumption of speech in patients in a minimally conscious state.

CONCLUSION

Few news reports had gross inaccuracies or misrepresentations; however, definitional difficulties of unconscious states with the reporters remain. The reporting of coma may be biased toward violence and trauma. Medically induced coma was present in 1 of 10 reports but rarely mentioned in the headline.

Section snippets

METHODS

We used the Lexis-Nexis database to search US newspapers from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2005. We searched the leading newspaper with the highest circulation of each state. Leading newspapers were found on http://newslink.org/topstate.html. A leading newspaper was defined as a full-service newspaper that serves the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas, with populations in excess of 1 million as determined by the latest US Census Bureau metropolitan area population estimates (see

RESULTS

We identified 340 newspaper stories based on headlines from 93,075 newspapers. Most reported articles were in the states of California (35 articles) and Florida (25 articles). Figure 1 depicts the number of articles published in each state. The reporting of articles was constant throughout the surveyed years and did not change notably per state exceptfor Florida, in which 10 articles published in 2004 were found compared with 3 in each of the remaining 4 years.

The main results are summarized in

DISCUSSION

Physicians, in conversations with the family, must have an understanding of their perception of coma. This perception may be framed by the mainstream media. We were interested in what the public reads in leading newspapers. Our review of a large number of US newspapers, during a 5-year epoch, found that coma is infrequently mentioned in headlines. We found a remarkable consistency and frequency of reporting on coma throughout the years. A 3-fold increase in reports on coma was noted in Florida

CONCLUSION

When coma is a topic, the reporters of major US newspapers select stories that involve young individuals involved in violence or trauma. However, a recent cohort that included 104 intensive care units in 45 US hospitals reported an average patient age of 61 years.6 Furthermore, in another study on coma in the intensive care unit, patients were most commonly admitted because of drug intoxication and suicide attempts, stroke, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and shock.7 Thus, the general impression

Acknowledgments

We thank Larry J. Prokop, MS, MLS, Mayo librarian, for help with searching the Lexis-Nexis database and Terry L. Duffy for secretarial help.

REFERENCES (7)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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