Framing diabetes public health information during Ramadan – a newspaper content analysis

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate health-related messages in printed media pertaining to diabetes care in Qatar during Ramadan. METHODS: Qatar national newspapers (Arabic and/or English) published 6 weeks prior to and 4 weeks during Ramadan 2012 were reviewed. Health-related content was identified and characterized according to four different categories including presence of messages pertaining to both diabetes and Ramadan. Articles describing diabetes and Ramadan combined were further evaluated according to specific features of prominence (surrogates for perceived reader importance). Newspapers were grouped by language, and volume and content of coverage were compared between groups. RESULTS: A total of 1 467 newspaper issues published during the 2012 review period (781 in Arabic and 686 in English) were analysed. Health-related articles appeared consistently throughout the study period, but few were specifically diabetes-related (66/1095 [6%] Arabic articles versus 34/1250 [2.7%] English articles; P = 0.008). Only 34/1095 (3.1%) Arabic and 23/1 250 (1.8%) English (P = 0.05) articles pertaining specifically to diabetes management during Ramadan were published. Twenty/34 (59%, Arabic) and 6/23 (26%, English) were published in high prominence positions. CONCLUSIONS: Opportunity exists to augment the relatively low coverage of diabetes health-related messages in print media during Ramadan.