Abstract

BackgroundBetween 2015 and 2017 six deaths due to meningitis in the Lombardy Region, Northern Italy, caught the attention of media and increased concern among the population, with a consequent increase in demand for vaccination. Considering the evidence about the impact of media coverage of health issues on public behaviour, this paper investigates the trend of media coverage and internet searches regarding meningitis in the Lombardy Region.MethodsContent analysis of online articles published from January 2015 to May 2017 and analysis of Google Trends were carried out. A codebook was created in order to assess the content of each article analysed, based on six areas: article characteristics, information about meningococcal disease and vaccination, Local Health Authority activities, accuracy of information and tone of the message.ResultsBoth public interest and media attention peaked in December 2016 and January 2017, when the Lombardy Regional Authority changed its policy by offering co-payment to adults with a saving of 50%. The frequency of meningitis coverage decreased after the announcement of policy change. For example, articles containing new information on meningitis or meningococcal vaccine (76 to 48%, p = 0.01) and preventive recommendations (31% down to 10%, p = 0.006) decreased significantly. An alarmist tone appeared in 21% of pre-policy articles that decreased to 5% post-policy (p = 0.03).ConclusionsThe findings suggest a role for the media in fostering public pressure towards health services and policy-makers. A collaboration between Public Health institutions and the media would be beneficial in order to improve communication with the public.

Highlights

  • Between 2015 and 2017 six deaths due to meningitis in the Lombardy Region, Northern Italy, caught the attention of media and increased concern among the population, with a consequent increase in demand for vaccination

  • Trend analysis of newspaper attention was based on these 132 articles. Both public interest towards meningitis and newspaper attention had briefly risen in August 2016

  • An obvious peak occurred in December 2016 and January 2017, when three cases of meningitis were recorded in Lombardy, which resulted in changes to regional policy to offer co-payment to adults (Fig. 2)

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Summary

Introduction

Between 2015 and 2017 six deaths due to meningitis in the Lombardy Region, Northern Italy, caught the attention of media and increased concern among the population, with a consequent increase in demand for vaccination. Free vaccination is provided by the Italian National Health Service (NHS) against serogroup C and, since January 2017, against serogroup B, in order to eliminate regional differences, according to the new National Vaccine Plan 2017–2019 [6]. Meningococcal vaccinations were not provided to healthy adults for free by the NHS and was not mandatory for any kind of occupation. On 29th December 2016, the Regional Committee of Lombardy (Northern Italy) approved a new vaccination campaign against meningitis with a copayment system for adults, starting 9th January 2017 [7]. The co-payment system offered the possibility for citizens to buy the vaccines at the same price paid by Region, i.e. 44 euro instead of 92 euro for Meningococcal Group ACWY, and 65 euro instead of 164 euro for Meningococcal Group B with a saving of around 50% [8]

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