Tell health stories comprehensively and accurately: A case study of health edition of People’s Daily

OBJECTIVES: People increasingly search for health information through the media and make decisions about their health based on these health stories. The mainstream media, including newspapers, are often the first source for the public to obtain health information. This study aims to assess the health stories reported in the health edition of People’s Daily in 2019 with four tools of the Media Doctor Toolkit (MDT), which can be an effective tool to evaluate the quality of public health stories. Based on the results, we attempt to address the gap in media coverage in terms of reporting on public health issues, and promote media to display the image of medical staff objectively, both of which can improve relationship of doctors, nurses and patients. METHODS: A prospective quantitative analysis of the quality of health stories reported in the health edition of People’s Daily from 1 February to September 31, 2019 was conducted. Forty-eight articles were collected and divided into four groups according to the MDT standards. Four rating tools were adapted from the MDT to assess the quality of the groups with corresponding criteria. RESULTS: Forty-eight unique health stories were assessed with four MDT rating tools. The mean total satisfactory score was 80%. Health advice had the highest average satisfactory score, 84%, compared with health policy group and public health problems and their solutions, at 80% and 77%, respectively. Health news group had the lowest score at 73%. CONCLUSION: This study provides a description of the quality of health stories on People’s Daily. The overall quality of People’s Daily was fairly good, although there was a wide range of quality between groups. The health edition of People’s Daily covers a wide range of health topics such as new medical methods, doctor-patient relationship, advanced nursing practice, lifestyle change of health promotion etc. which promote excellence in providing the latest health information, representing medical staff image, resolve the disharmonious factors in the relationship between doctors and patients, and creating a good medical environment for the public. The findings of this study also provide insight into problems in health reporting of People’s Daily.