Health disparities in the media: Exposure to content about health disparities and beliefs about disparities

Despite public health efforts to raise awareness about health disparities, little is known about public beliefs about health disparities or the sources of these beliefs. This study investigated associations between self-reported exposure to media coverage of and beliefs about health disparities, using survey data from the May 2009 Annenberg National Health Communication Survey (N=289 adults). Two-thirds of the nationally representative sample reported exposure to media content about health disparities in the past month. Liberals and those with more education were more likely to report greater exposure to health disparities content. When asked in an open-ended format what groups come to mind when thinking about health disparities, half named at least one group. Groups defined by race and SES were listed most frequently. Yet, while nearly two-thirds of respondents agreed that people in poverty were worse off than others in terms of health (60.9%) and getting needed healthcare (64.3%), only about half as many agreed that similar disparities affected groups defined by race/ethnicity or educational status. Although bivariate associations existed between reported news exposure and health disparities beliefs, these associations generally did not hold after controlling for demographic and political variables. We conclude that despite relatively high reported exposure to information about health disparities in the media, the public varies in their degree of recognition of health disparities and in their beliefs about what kinds of groups are affected. We discuss roles of the media and organized campaigns in informing the public about health disparities.