Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Newspapers along with other mass media have a significant role in increasing health literacy of the general public. Pediatrics related information is one of the most important issues of newspapers. The goal of this study is to perform a content analysis of the newspaper in Iran for pediatrics information in year 2014. METHODS: This is an applied survey performed by using content analysis method. The data gathering tool is a checklist designed by the researchers. The statistical population consisted of all of the messages printed in 694 volumes in five most widely circulated Iranian newspapers, published during a six-month span. The sample size calculated using non-probability– purposive sampling was 3019 messages from 426 newspaper articles. RESULTS: Findings showed that “Mental disorders” (19.6%) and “Nutrition” (19.27%) had the highest and “Pathophysiology of body fluids and fluid therapy” and “Gynecological problems in childhood” had the lowest (0%) frequency in the messages. there is little attention to “Human Genetics”, “metabolic disorders” and “children with special needs.” The author of 52.58% of articles was identified and among these 157 (36.85%) articles had authors with unknown Specialty. It is discovered that 295 (60.79%) articles had citations and among them 59.62% had in-text citations. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study show that pediatric is well covered in examined newspapers. But authorities should pay more attention to subjects like Pathophysiology of body fluids and fluid therapy, Gynecological problems in childhood, Human Genetics, metabolic disorders and children with special needs. Finally, since the audience of newspapers consists of public people the scientific credibility of the claims made in these messages should be regarded.