Parenting Magazines and Obesity: How Well Do They Trim the Fat?

Abstract

Magazines serve as an important source for health-related news, and this study examines the kinds of obesity-related messages that appear in magazines targeting parents and women. Coders examined 306 stories between 2002 and 2008 and found that messages focused on food more frequently than exercise or dieting. Women were more likely to appear in stories with food-related themes, while men were more likely to appear when supporting research or data were present.

Notes

¹While two of these magazines were specifically aimed at mothers (not fathers), only about 10% of the parenting magazine sample came from these sources and does not appear to have influenced the overall results.

²The reliability for story theme was .66, which is not ideal. The problem likely occurred as coders struggled with choosing one main story theme. However, the main statistical analysis employed for this variable was a chi-squared test, which is a low-power statistic used for nominal variables. For the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the variable was transformed to a dichotomous food- or non-food-focused story to minimize interpretation of this variable.

³Medical experts were defined listed as a medical doctor or a specific type of doctor, (e.g., pediatrician). Dietary experts were defined as those labeled in the story as having expert training or knowledge of diet or nutrition (e.g., a nutritionist). Finally government officials were defined as those listed as representing a government agency or holding a political office. It is important to note that these categories are not mutually exclusive; for example, a mention could be a doctor working for the Food and Drug Administration. The rationale for this decision was to permit documentation of any descriptive information about a source that might be noted by a consumer.