Abstract
Introduction
In January 2000, the Bone and Joint Decade was formally launched at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The goal was “to improve the health-related quality of life for people with musculoskeletal disorders throughout the world”. They aimed to do this, in part, by “raising awareness of the growing burden of musculoskeletal disorders on society”. The Bone and Joint Decade has 63 supporting governments, over 700 supporting government and non-government organisations and a budget in the millions. It was the largest musculoskeletal health promotion campaign in history.
Aim
To determine the impact of the Bone and Joint Decade on the International Press
Methods
LexisNexisTM Professional search engine utilised to retrieve articles from all known English language national newspapers internationally containing the term “Bone and/& Joint Decade” from January 1999 to January 2010.
Results
Only 56 articles were found from the all the worlds English language national newspapers. These came from 13 countries; only 2 were part of the EU. Australia mentioned it most- 12 times in 10 years. The Bone & Joint Decade was the main topic of the article in only 23%. In only 48% was the role of the Bone and Joint Decade mentioned- in 20% of these its role was incorrectly quoted. In only 23% was someone from the organisation quoted and in only 27% was a medical professional quoted. The portrayal of the Bone and Joint Decade was of a neutral tone-93%, positive tone-2% and a negative tone-5%.
Conclusions
The Bone and Joint Decade has ended and very few were made aware that it started. The media coverage of the largest musculoskeletal health campaign in history has been woefully inadequate
