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Health Promotion International, Vol. 15, No. 4, 321-332, December 2000
© Oxford University Press 2000

Representations of preconditions for and determinants of health in the Dutch press

Matthew J. Commers, Geo Visser and Evelyne De Leeuw

Department of Health Education and Promotion, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Address for correspondence: Matthew J. Commers Department of Health Education and Promotion Maastricht University PO Box 616 6200 MD Maastricht The Netherlands e-mail: matt.commers{at}gvo.unimaas.nl

As a mass medium which provides information to the public about both the determinants of health and the conditioning of those determinants through professional or civic means, the press is an important object of study for health promoters, who regularly seek to build upon and influence public understandings regarding the etiology of health. This article investigates whether the factors which the Dutch press portray as determining or allowing for health are congruent with the central tenets of health promotion as these are detailed in the WHO's 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and 1997 Jakarta Declaration. A content analysis was conducted on 600 randomly selected health-related articles appearing in the five Dutch newspapers with the largest average daily circulation over 8 weeks. Two coders ascribed values to each of the 600 articles for seven content variables, including determinant theme of article, authority identifying determinant theme, means and agent of determinant conditioning, breadth of population affected, and mediating populational attributes. Two form variables, text and graphic area, were also assessed by the coders. Findings indicate that though there are some reasons to be encouraged, representations of the determinants of health in the Dutch press are largely incompatible with the etiological assumptions of health promotion. Health promoters, it is asserted, must continue to engage the press in order to take advantage of opportunities and gaps in health etiological coverage.

Key words: determinants; health; media; promotion


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