[font face=Serif]PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
9-Dec-2014

Contact: Emma Dickinson
edickinson@bmj.com
44-020-738-36529
BMJ-British Medical Journal
@bmj_latest

[font size=5]Most exaggeration in health news is already present in academic press releases[/font]

[font size=4]The scientific community has the ability to improve this situation, say researchers[/font]

[font size=3]Most exaggeration in health related science news is already present in academic press releases, finds a study published in The BMJ this week.

The researchers suggest that improving the accuracy of academic press releases "could represent a key opportunity for reducing misleading health related news."

Health related news has widespread potential to influence health related behaviour but often misreports the science. It is not known whether exaggerations - claims going beyond those made in the research paper - originate in the news stories themselves or in press releases issued by academic institutions producing the research.

…

They found that 40% of press releases contained exaggerated advice, 33% contained exaggerated causal claims, and 36% contained exaggerated inference to humans from animal research, compared with the corresponding peer reviewed journal articles.

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