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Healthcare institutions use press releases to convey the results of research studies to news media; however, some press releases exaggerate findings and lack appropriate caveats. In this study, researchers determined how often press releases and news stories contained claims and advice that distorted or exaggerated those presented in corresponding peer-reviewed original research articles.
The researchers identified 462 press releases issued in 2011 by 20 leading U.K. universities, the press releases' associated peer-reviewed research articles, and 688 related print and online news stories. Forty percent of press releases contained more direct or explicit advice than the associated journal articles did. The odds of exaggerated advice in a new…