Misinformation in News Coverage of Professional and College Athlete Musculoskeletal Ailments

Background: the general population’s understanding of musculoskeletal health is likely influenced by media reportsof the ailments of prominent athletes.we assessed factors independently associated with debatable or potentially misleading medical statements inmainstream sports media coverage of the ailments of professional and college athletes.methods: we identified and assessed 200 internet media reports of musculoskeletal ailments of prominent athletes betweenfebruary 19th and march 26th, 2018. we recorded medical statements about mechanism, diagnosis, treatment, andprognosis. we then classified those statements as accurate, debatable, or possibly misleading. we created a multivariablelogistic regression model to identify factors independently associated with debatable or possibly misleading statements.results: forty-five percent of statements were debatable or possibly misleading. statements about diagnosis (oddsratio [or]=0.17; p< 0.001), treatment (or=0.33; p=0.007), or prognosis (or=0.27; p=0.003) and statements aboutshoulder and elbow ailments were more likely to be inaccurate compared to statements about mechanism andstatements about knee ailments (or=3.3; p=0.04) respectively.conclusion: coverage of sports ailments in the mainstream media are a common source of misinformation. ailments ofprominent athletes may represent a useful opportunity to teach people about musculoskeletal health.