What the Sinhala newspapers publish on care of the skin

Health education is a powerful tool that could change the health behaviour of an individual. It is widely carried out through the Sinhala print media, which have a wide circulation. A large number of articles are found on maintenance of healthy skin and self-care of common skin problems.

The objective of this study was to identify the areas covered, the quality of information and the deficiencies that are found in the articles.

An information quality tool was formulated with criteria such as sources of information, credentials, accuracy, currency and readability. These were checked for all articles related to the skin, which appeared in 611 newspapers. Of the 172 articles related to skin care, only 8 (4.77%) were written by dermatologists. Only 71.7% carried accurate information. 7% carried potentially dangerous information. Most were well written but carried irrelevant illustrations.

Overall, the quality of information on skin problems was Poor.