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Over the past few years, we've seen large increases in the amount of published research on vitamin D, public interest in vitamin D, and the amount of health professionals incorporating vitamin D into their practices. The ways in which mass media outlets can sway public opinion and decisions on health and nutrition is vast. Print media is often overlooked, and yet is immensely powerful in influencing public perception. How is vitamin D portrayed by the mass media? As 2015 progresses, the media will no doubt continue to influence how the general public views this crucial nutrient. A new study has helped provide insight on this matter. A Canadian research team led by Dr. Timothy Caulfield looked at all print media stories on vitamin D over a five-year span to determine how the news is reporting on vitamin D. In total, they looked at 294 articles be- tween 2009 and 2014. The researchers were interested in three themes: • The general, descriptive nature of the publication. • The health conditions mentioned to be related to vitamin D, whether supplementation was mentioned and/ or recommended, whether a specific study was sourced, the in-depth nature of the information, and whether any potential harms of excessive amounts was mentioned. • If the article was overall supportive, skeptical, or just descriptive regarding vi- tamin D and vitamin D supplementation. • They wanted to know, are newspaper and magazine outlets portraying vitamin D in a positive, negative, or neutral light and how has this changed between 2009 and 2014? Here's what they found: Media coverage on vitamin D peaked in 2010 with a slight decline in following years. The most common theme, "adequate vitamin D is necessary for good health," appeared in 57% of the articles. Other major themes, including "vitamin D sup- plements may be necessary for good health and the prevention of chronic disease," "it is impossible or difficult to get vitamin D from natural sources," and "vitamin D deficiency is widespread and cause for concerns" appeared in 36%, 28% and 30% of the articles, respectively. The newspaper articles mentioned 40 health conditions related to vitamin D, with cancer (43% of articles), bone health (39%) and multiple sclerosis (28%) being the top three mentioned. In total, 88% of the articles mentioned a health concern in relation to vitamin D deficiency. Fifty-nine percent of the articles suggested that vitamin D supplementation may be re- quired for optimal health. Twenty-five per- cent of articles suggested the need for more evidence before recommending widespread supplementation, while only 8% mentioned the potential harms of too much vitamin D. Forty percent of the articles sourced one or more published studies, while 35% went into detail beyond the study's conclusion. The researchers concluded, "[The] content analysis revealed that newspaper coverage represented vitamin D in a favorable light and suggested it was positively linked to good health and the prevention of chronic disease." They went on to add, "We know the media is a powerful, persua- sive source of health information. Given our findings that the popular press has been consistently endorsing supplementation, it seems reasonable to conclude the popular press is, at least in part, helping to fuel the demand for vitamin D supplements and to the confusion about its value." The research team noted that the lack of inclusion of popular vitamin D infor- mation websites, such as the Vitamin D Council, and social media may limit the true impact that all media outlets have on vitamin D coverage. This is exciting research to begin 2015. It shows that major news outlets are cov- ering vitamin D extensively, referencing published scientific research, and noting the benefits of vitamin D outside of bone health. It also shows that some media outlets continue to spin vitamin D in a biased manner contrary to what is seen in evidence-based reports. With this in mind, the Vitamin D Council looks forward to what's in store for vita- min D in 2015 and beyond. ASK THE EXPERT 77 ❘ SMART TAN MAGAZINE ❘ MARCH 2015 WWW.SMARTTAN.COM Five-year review: How is vitamin D portrayed in print media? Source: Caulfeld, T. et al. Representations of the health value of vitamin D supplementation in newspapers: media content analysis. BMJ Open, 2014. Jeff Nicklas is the operations manager for the Vitamin D Council. He is passionate about regional and sociocultural differences in global health, which he enjoys discovering frsthand through travel.