News reporting of suicidal behaviour in Nigeria: Adherence assessment to World Health Organization guidelines

2020 ◽  
pp. 002076402096335
Author(s):  
Tosin Philip Oyetunji ◽  
SM Yasir Arafat ◽  
Famori Stephen Oluwaseyi ◽  
Obafemi Oluwasanmi ◽  
Michael Afolami ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Reporting Guidelines ◽  
World Health ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Adherence Assessment ◽  
Health Organization

Background: Sensible media reporting has been considered an important suicide prevention strategy which is an under-researched issue in Nigeria. There is a dearth of research assessing how the media has been reporting suicidal news to the general population in Nigeria. Aim: It was aimed to see the adherence of news reports to the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines while reporting the events. Methods: We searched the published contents of 10 English newspapers of Nigeria and assessed the adherence to the WHO media guidelines for reporting suicide from January 2010 to December 2019. Results: Most of the reports (85.31%) mentioned completed suicides, 4.4% recorded suicides, and 9.5% recorded suicide-related homicides. The majority of the reports mentioned the name (85.6%) and profession (63.8%) of the person; the name of the method (92%) and life events (67.8%). The word ‘suicide’ was mentioned in the headline of 87.6% of the reports; the method was mentioned in the headline of 22.8% of the reports, and 31.7% of the reports referred to life events in the headline. Only 8.8% of reports had traced mental illness, 33.3% traced the warning signs, 2.8% mentioned evidence of substance abuse and very few reports mentioned educative materials. Conclusion: The study found that Nigeria’s online newspapers are poorly adherent to the WHO media reporting guidelines. Explicit descriptions of the person, methods, life events, and mono-causal explanations were frequently published. Negligible initiatives have been found to educate the general people in the reports.

Quality of media reporting following a celebrity suicide in India

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikas Menon ◽  
Sujita Kumar Kar ◽  
Natarajan Varadharajan ◽  
Charanya Kaliamoorthy ◽  
Jigyansa Ipsita Pattnaik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Online News ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
World Health ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Celebrity Suicide ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Background Celebrity suicides have the potential to trigger suicide contagion, particularly when media reporting is detailed and imbalanced. We aimed to assess the quality of media reporting of suicide of a popular Indian entertainment celebrity against the World Health Organization (WHO) suicide reporting guidelines. Methods Relevant news articles that reported the actor’s suicide were retrieved from online news portals of regional and English language newspapers and television channels in the immediate week following the event. Deductive content analysis of these articles was done using a pre-designed data extraction form. Results A total of 573 news articles were analyzed. Several breaches of reporting were noted in relation to mentioning the word ‘celebrity’ in the title of report (14.7%), inclusion of the deceased’s photograph (88.5%), detailed descriptions of the method (50.4%) and location of suicide (70.6%); local language newspapers were more culpable than English newspapers. Helpful reporting characteristics such as mentioning warning signs (4.1%), including educational information (2.7%) and suicide support line details (14.0%) were rarely practiced. Conclusion Media reporting of celebrity suicide in India is imbalanced and poorly adherent to suicide reporting recommendations. Local language news reports display more frequent and serious violations in reporting as opposed to English news articles.

Indonesian online newspaper reporting of suicidal behavior: Compliance with World Health Organization media guidelines

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazriatun Nisa ◽  
Muhammad Arifin ◽  
Muhammad Fauzan Nur ◽  
Shylvana Adella ◽  
Marthoenis Marthoenis
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Reporting Guidelines ◽  
World Health ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
Completed Suicide ◽  
Online Newspaper ◽  
Newspaper Reporting ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Methods Of Suicide

Background: Despite the lack of attention, suicide is a major public and mental health problem in Indonesia. Research on how Indonesian newspapers portray suicide case has been lacking. Aim: To assess the quality of Indonesian online newspaper reporting suicide news and its compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) mass media reporting guidelines. Methods: The content of suicide news reported in online newspapers was searched and scrutinized against the WHO suicide reporting guidelines. Results: Within the duration of 6 months, there were 548 suicide news reported. This consisted of 16.8% attempted suicide and 83.2% completed suicide. Approximately 90.3% reported age, 97.3% reported gender and 64.3% reported the marital status of the victims. Furthermore, 68% reported the methods of suicide in headline or title, 40.5% shown the picture of the victims and 56.6% shown illustration only, and 67.2% reported life event related to suicide act. Conclusion: The vast majority of online newspapers in Indonesia exaggerate suicide news. They rarely inform the readers that there is hope and help available. The majority also do not conform to the WHO media guidelines.

scholarly journals Utilities and Limitations of the World Health Organization 2009 Warning Signs for Adult Dengue Severity

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e2023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tun-Linn Thein ◽  
Victor C. Gan ◽  
David C. Lye ◽  
Chee-Fu Yung ◽  
Yee-Sin Leo
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

scholarly journals Assessment of the new World Health Organization’s dengue classification for predicting severity of illness and level of healthcare required

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balgees A. Ajlan ◽  
Maram M. Alafif ◽  
Maha M. Alawi ◽  
Naeema A. Akbar ◽  
Eman K. Aldigs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Study ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
World Health ◽  
Severe Dengue ◽  
New Classification ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Higher Sensitivity

AbstractThe objective of this observational study was to assess the validity of the new dengue classification proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 and to develop pragmatic guidelines for case triage and management. This retrospective study involved 357 laboratory-confirmed cases of dengue infection diagnosed at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia over a 4-year period from 2014 to 2017. The sensitivity of the new classification for identifying severe cases was limited (65.0%) but higher than the old one (30 0%). It had a higher sensitivity for identifying patients who needed advanced healthcare compared to the old one (72.0% versus 32.0%, respectively). We propose adding decompensation of chronic diseases and thrombocytopenia-related bleeding to the category of severe dengue in the new classification. This modification improves sensitivity from 72.0% to 97.5% for identifying patients who need advanced healthcare without altering specificity (96.7%). It also improves sensitivity in predicting severe outcomes from 32% to 88.0%. In conclusion, the new classification had a low sensitivity for identifying patients needing advanced care and for predicting morbidity and mortality. We propose to include decompensation of chronic diseases and thrombocytopenia-related bleeding to the category of severe dengue in the new classification to improve the sensitivity of predicting cases requiring advanced care.Author summaryDengue fever, the most prevalent arthropod-borne viral disease in human, has been conventionally classified into four main categories: non-classical, classical, dengue hemorrhagic fever, and dengue shock syndrome. Several studies reported lack of correlation between the categories of the conventional classification and the disease severity. As a consequence, the World Health organization proposed in 2008 a new classification that divides dengue into two categories: non-severe and severe dengue; the non-severe dengue is further divided into two categories: dengue with warning signs and dengue without warning signs. In this retrospective study we reviewed 357 cases of dengue diagnosed in our institution over a 4-year period to assess the validity of the new dengue classification in order to develop pragmatic guidelines for case triage and management in the Emergency Departments. We found that the sensitivity of the new classification for identifying severe cases was limited even though it had a higher sensitivity for identifying patients who needed advanced healthcare compared to the old one. We propose adding decompensation of chronic diseases and low platelets-related bleeding to the category of severe dengue in the new classification. This modification dramatically improves the sensitivity for identifying patients who need advanced healthcare and the sensitivity to predict severe outcomes.

Do Tamil newspapers educate the public about suicide? Content analysis from a high suicide Union Territory in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 785-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikas Menon ◽  
Charanya Kaliamoorthy ◽  
Vivekanandhan Kavanoor Sridhar ◽  
Natarajan Varadharajan ◽  
Rini Joseph ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Reporting Guidelines ◽  
World Health ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reporting Practices

Background: Responsible media reporting of suicide is a key population-level suicide prevention strategy. Thus far, there has been no systematic analysis of media reporting of suicide in Puducherry, a consistently high suicide burden state in India. Aim: To evaluate the adherence of media reports of suicide against the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines in Puducherry. Method: We conducted a year-round content analysis of all suicide-related reports in the two most widely read vernacular dailies of Puducherry. We used a pre-defined data extraction form and coded each item based on the WHO reporting guidelines. Results: A total of 318 suicide reports were retrieved. Harmful reporting practices such as mentioning the method of suicide (99.1%), description of the steps involved (68.2%) and location of suicide (86.5%), monocausal explanations (91.8%), and inciting life events (52.5%) were common. Helpful practices such as mentioning warning signs (1.3%), recognizing links with mental health disorders (3.8%) and effects on bereaved persons (2.2%) were rare. Only one article (0.31%) included any content related to educational/preventive aspects of suicide. Conclusion: Media reporting of suicide in Puducherry, India, does not adhere to reporting guidelines and there is very little focus on educating the public about preventive aspects of suicide. Urgent efforts are warranted to improve the quality of media reporting which should include the development of national guidelines on suicide reporting and collaborative efforts that take into account barriers and perspectives of media professionals.

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