P080 Print and online news representations of osteoporosis and its treatment in the UK: a framing analysis
Authors: Turner Rosie , Jinks Clare , Holohan Siobhan , Paskins Zoe 
Published: April 2023

Background/Aims

Osteoporosis is a common condition which weakens bones, meaning bones can break easily. Breaking a bone may be a painful experience with significant physical, psychological, and social impact. Experts have recently proposed the “osteoporosis crisis” meaning those at risk are not being identified and for those who are, treatment uptake remains low. It is unclear what is driving the crisis. One influence may be news media, as news can impact on health beliefs and behaviours. This study aimed to investigate how osteoporosis and its treatment are represented in UK print and online news.

Methods

First, to explore the amount of newspaper coverage of osteoporosis compared to other long-term conditions (LTCs), a ProQuest search of twelve highly circulated newspapers between the 1st of October 2019 and the 30th of September 2020 was conducted, using the keyword “osteoporosis” and keywords relating to eight other LTCs. Next, the search on articles relating to osteoporosis was extended by using the search function on each newspaper’s website. The articles containing the keyword “osteoporosis” were subject to an inductive framing analysis. Analysis involved identifying dominant frames and components within them including problem definition, causal attribution, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation.

Results

From the ProQuest comparison search, fewer articles were published containing the keyword “osteoporosis” (n = 148) compared to any of the other LTCs (“rheumatoid arthritis” (n = 194) to “cancer” (n = 9,644)). A total of 218 articles from ProQuest and online news platforms were identified for the framing analysis. Three dominant frames were present: Biomedical (n = 53 articles), Lifestyle (n = 47 articles) and Human-Interest (n = 118 articles). Osteoporosis was presented as a problem of menopause and ageing across all frames. The cause was attributed to either an imbalance in bone turnover (biomedical), poor diet and inactivity (lifestyle) and often disordered eating and menopause (human-interest). Moral evaluations of osteoporosis included descriptions of osteoporosis as a serious condition (biomedical), women were often described as vulnerable (lifestyle), and people with the condition were described as disabled, elderly and suffering (human-interest). Treatment recommendations highlighted pharmacological treatment (biomedical), or prevention through lifestyle choices (lifestyle). Human-interest stories included celebrity perspectives which were characterised by wealthy, glamorous and royal individuals and events, and lay stories which presented shocking or unusual cases and described those with the condition as victims and sufferers.

Conclusion

This study found that osteoporosis receives little media attention compared to other LTCs. There was little overlap between biomedical, and lifestyle components which reinforce osteoporosis as either a serious condition requiring medical intervention or as a self-inflicted condition controllable through individual actions. Human-interest stories highlighted pain and suffering of those afflicted. Results will inform focus groups exploring audience perceptions of media about osteoporosis and contribute to recommendations for reporting osteoporosis in the media.

Disclosure

R. Turner: None. C. Jinks: Grants/research support; CJ is part funded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West Midlands. S. Holohan: None. Z. Paskins: Grants/research support; ZP is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (Clinician Scientist Award (CS-2018-18-ST2- 010)/NIHR Academy).