The Media’s Impact on the Public’s Perception of Health Issues | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog

According to American College of Emergency Physicians, the publicity surrounding the death of actress Natasha Richardson, who died suddenly from a head injury after a fall has triggered a 73 percent increase in emergency room visits for head trauma. In the month following her death, the number of patients seen by doctors in 19 urban, suburban, and rural emergency rooms in New York and New Jersey in March 2009 rose dramatically. However, when the media stories regarding the actress’ death began to wane, the number of emergency room visits for head trauma returned to the pre-March 2009 levels.

“The study quantified what we already knew: when the media make people more aware of a disease process, they get scared and come to the emergency room,” Brian Walsh of Morristown Memorial Hospital said. In this case, “the media played up the ‘sudden death syndrome’ aspect – the idea that you can have a minor fall, look great afterwards, and suddenly die.” Likewise, media campaigns that increase knowledge by encouraging people to go to an emergency room if, for example, they show signs of a stroke or heart attack, can be helpful. However, in the case of of patients who visited the emergency room concerned about head trauma, only 2 or 3 percent of those had a significant injury. Mr. Walsh also reflected on the current reports of the swine flu. “Every time someone dies, we get a bump in visits. But most people aren’t dying from it, and everyone is paranoid. The extra knowledge is making them scared.”