Daily HealthBeat Tip

Reading the ads

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Ads work. But ads don't always work for the health benefit of people who see them. And a researcher says some groups get more bad stuff than others do.

Georgia Robins Sadler of the University of California-San Diego examined health-related ads in women's magazines for blacks, Hispanics and the mainstream, predominantly whites. Her study in the journal BMC Public Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Sadler found magazines for minorities had fewer ads for health-promoting products such as prescription or over-the-counter drugs -- and more ads for health-diminishing products, such as cigarettes and alcohol.

Sadler says women who want health information have to look beyond the ads:

"Read everything they can put their hands on. Talk to colleagues. Look on the Internet. Talk to their healthcare providers." (six seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 21, 2005

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