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Quality of information in the magazine - or lack o...

I enjoy reading WebMD in my doctor's office, but I don't take it very seriously. I think...

Posted by nicegirl99

I enjoy reading WebMD in my doctor's office, but I don't take it very seriously. I think of it more as the "People" magazine version of health publications.

Why is that the case? It's because nearly every time I read an issue I find at least one incorrect piece of information or a nonsensical statement. Most of the time I just shut the magazine and forget about it, but recently I decided to bring up the subject.

Following two couple of examples that popped out at me when I browsed the January/February issue. I didn't read the rest of the magazine.

1. The article "Your Top Snooze Q's" contained the following sentence: "There's even data to show that people who sleep more than 10 hours or less than 5 hours in each 24 hour period have double the mortality rate."
What does this sentence mean? We all die once and only once, therefore we have a 100% mortality rate. So how could anyone's mortality rate be doubled? This is bad writing, bad logic, and bad editing.

If the sentence said "In a 20 year study at XXX university which followed 5000 subjects who were age 40-45 at the beginning of the study, those participants who slept more than 10 hours or less than 5 hours in each 24 hour period were twice as likely to die during the course of the study than the rest of the participants in the study" and also had a link to the published article, then I'd be more likely to take it seriously. In an age where the quality of medical research is being called into question, articles such as "Your Top Snooze Q's" exacerbate the problem with poor reporting of research findings.

2. The article "Late Bloomer" states that "Your makeup grinds into your skin all night, causing breakouts and even stretching out pores, which makes your skin look older."

Most of us know by now that "pores" are "clogged" and made to appear larger by sebum produced from the inside, not from anything that is applied topically, so why would webmd magazine publish this type of statement?

Why doesn't WebMD do a better job of reviewing and editing prior to publishing?View Thread

Posted bynicegirl99

1 Reply | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Quality of information in the magazine - or lack of it I enjoy reading WebMD in my doctor's office, but I don't take it very seriously. I think...

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