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This dissertation, Use, Misuse and Abuse of Statistics: an Evaluation of the Quality of Public Health Reporting in Hong Kong by Yee-sheung, Olga, Wong, 黃綺湘, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis Use, Misuse and Abuse of Statistics: An Evaluation of the Quality of Public Health Reporting in Hong Kong Submitted by Wong Yee Sheung, Olga For the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong November 2005 The press coverage of health news in Hong Kong has increased significantly in the past seven years. The battle against the virulent infectious disease Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 demonstrated the importance for the public to gain access to accurate and timely information during a health crisis. Located in the southern part of China, Hong Kong is not only a city where new infectious diseases are likely to emerge, it also acts as a communication hub of Asia. The reliability of health information delivered by the media in Hong Kong is critical to the local society, as well as the international community. This thesis is the first known study that evaluates the quality of health reporting in Hong Kong. The evaluation focuses on the coverage of major local newspapers and aims to present a critical appraisal of their handling of statistical data. Four major newspapers in Hong Kong, namely Apple Daily, Oriental Daily, Ming Pao and South China Morning Post, were evaluated. Three common types of health reporting, on health risk, health surveys and medical studies, were chosen for evaluation. A representative case study was selected for each topic. They are the reporting of SARS death rate, reporting of surveys in relation to slimming and medical reporting on cancer (the leading cause of death in Hong Kong). Criteria for evaluation were designed for each case study with reference to past studies and international best practices for health news reporting. Findings show that the death rate reporting of SARS fails to provide alternative death rate calculation in a timely manner. Most press coverage also uses an over-certain tone regarding the death rate and underreports the fatality of SARS at the beginning of the outbreak. The evaluation of the surveys reporting in relation to slimming finds that significant statistics including sampling error, response rate and sample size are omitted. Few reports provide revealing information such as the sponsors or the commissioners of the surveys. Such information is crucial for the public in their assessment of the reliability of the surveys. Otherwise, they are likely to be unaware of the commercial interests involved and cannot get a fuller picture of the surveys' findings. Furthermore, analysis of the reporting on cancer shows that the local press seldom quantifies the medical studies with vital health statistics such as survival rate and death rate. Numerical data are often not put to the best use. Reporting of barren percentages is commonly found. This thesis indicates that health reporting in Hong Kong is not reliable. Due to the lack of critical use of health statistics in death rate reporting, the public was misled at the beginning of the SARS crisis. Due to the omission of vital statistics and the misuse of numerical data in surveys and cancer reporting, the public was frequently misinformed. Reporters are advised to use statistics more vigilantly and critically when covering health news so that the public will get a more balanced and realistic picture of health informa

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