Evaluation of Volume of News Reporting and Opioid-Related Deaths in the United States: Comparative Analysis Study of Geographic and Socioeconomic Differences.

Clark Freifeld,Amanda Zhang,John S Brownstein,Yulin Hswen

doi:10.2196/17693

Abstract

BackgroundNews media coverage is a powerful influence on public attitude and government action. The digitization of news media covering the current opioid epidemic has changed the landscape of coverage and may have implications for how to effectively respond to the opioid crisis.ObjectiveThis study aims to characterize the relationship between volume of online opioid news reporting and opioid-related deaths in the United States and how these measures differ across geographic and socioeconomic county-level factors.MethodsOnline news reports from February 2018 to April 2019 on opioid-related events in the United States were extracted from Google News. News data were aggregated at the county level and compared against opioid-related death counts. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model opioid-related death rate and opioid news coverage with the inclusion of socioeconomic and geographic explanatory variables.ResultsA total of 35,758 relevant news reports were collected representing 1789 counties. Regression analysis revealed that opioid-related death rate was positively associated with news reporting. However, opioid-related death rate and news reporting volume showed opposite correlations with educational attainment and rurality. When controlling for variation in death rate, counties in the Northeast were overrepresented by news coverage.ConclusionsOur results suggest that regional variation in the volume of opioid-related news reporting does not reflect regional variation in opioid-related death rate. Differences in the amount of media attention may influence perceptions of the severity of opioid epidemic. Future studies should investigate the influence of media reporting on public support and action on opioid issues.

Highlights

Each day in the United States, more than 130 people die from opioid overdose and its death toll only continues to rise [1]
Results from our study show that opioid-related mortality and opioid-related news reporting were positively correlated with each other: increases in opioid-related death rate at the county level were associated with increases in news reports
Areas with greater news reporting tended to be more educated, more urbanized, and located in the Northeast. These discrepancies in news reporting rate and death rate, which can be interpreted as a sign of the magnitude of the opioid crisis in a certain area, highlight potential differences in the relative attention of news coverage across regions, rural areas, and socioeconomic status

Summary

Introduction

Each day in the United States, more than 130 people die from opioid overdose and its death toll only continues to rise [1]. As mass media is a powerful influence on public opinion, monitoring trends and differences in the volume of opioid-related news stories may offer important insights for addressing this crisis. A time-series analysis of changing public opinion about the importance of illegal drug use in the United States showed that public views were largely driven by news media describing drug abuse as a crisis [7]. Objective: This study aims to characterize the relationship between volume of online opioid news reporting and opioid-related deaths in the United States and how these measures differ across geographic and socioeconomic county-level factors. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model opioid-related death rate and opioid news coverage with the inclusion of socioeconomic and geographic explanatory variables. Regression analysis revealed that opioid-related death rate was positively associated with news reporting. Future studies should investigate the influence of media reporting on public support and action on opioid issues

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