The media influence on the Weber effect: Correlation between the news published about the HPV vaccine and the alerts recorded in pharmacovigilance

The media influence on the Weber effect: Correlation between the news published about the HPV vaccine and the alerts recorded in pharmacovigilance

Reference

Moreno C. (2015). “La influencia de los medios de comunicación sobre el efecto Weber: correlación entre las noticias publicadas sobre la vacuna del VPH y las alertas registradas en farmacovigilancia”. Panace@. Vol. XVI, 42.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the possibility of a significant relationship between media coverage of the HPV vaccine and thereports of adverse reactions recorded in the pharmacovigilance system of the Valencian Community. The study is limited toValencia because of the headlines made by the hospitalization of two girls in this community, after being vaccinated in February 2009. To assess the role made by media on the crisis of the HPV vaccine, the article analyzes the content of the news reports. It measures the tone of the stories (risks and benefits) in seven Spanish newspapers: ABC, El Comercio, Las Provincias, Levante, La Nueva España, El PaísandEl Mundo, from 2007 to 2013. The total number of newspaper stories studied was 297. The main result of the research establishes that, during the period under review, the number of news published about the benefits of the vaccine (149) was larger than the ones highlighting the risks (127). The year 2009 included the highest amount of notifications to pharmacovigilance in the Valencia region. However, the reporting of side effects increased significantly four months before the two media cases had happened. In fact, the month in which the two cases were diagnosed, there were fewer reports than the previous month

Palabras clave

adverse effects, health information, HPV vaccine, media, notifications, pharmacovigilance, Weber effect