Communicating diabetes in Australian print media : a change in language use between 2010 and 2014?

Objective: To assess if language used by Australian print media has changed in accordance with the 2011 Diabetes Australia position statement: a new language for diabetes. Methods: Five prominent Australian newspapers were reviewed to retrieve articles from 2010 and 2014 that focused on diabetes or discussed diabetes in detail. Individual terms or phrases used within each article were categorised as preferred language, neutral language or language to avoid. Results: 111 and 79 diabetes-specific articles were retrieved for 2010 and 2014, respectively. A significant decrease (p<0.05) was observed in diabetes articles using language to avoid in 2014(45.6%) compared to 2010 (70.3%); accompanied by a significant increase (p<0.05) in diabetes articles using preferred language. There was no significant increase in articles that only used preferred language with or without neutral language, indicating that most articles commonly use both preferred language and language to avoid. Conclusions and implications: The Australian print news media has increased use of preferred language when communicating about diabetes, but have not eliminated the use of language to avoid. To realise the goals of the language position statement, continued championing of the recommendations by the health community is needed to ensure awareness and adoption.