Reports on Homeopathic therapy efficacy: A survey of two Brazilian newspapers

The objective of this work was to identify the existence of biases on the reporting of Homeopathy efficacy in Brazilian newspapers. To this end, the online archives of two large newspapers - one in Rio de Janeiro city and one in São Paulo city - were searched for all news or reports concerning Homeopathy in the period January 2009-December 2010. The identified items were then classified as “favorable”, “unfavorable” or “neutral” in what concerns the efficacy of Homeopathic therapy. Paid advertisements and “passing” references were excluded. Thirty-one items were identified, and the results indicated an overall preponderance of “favorable”, as compared to “unfavorable“, reports (14 favorable, 7 unfavorable). In conclusion, newspaper reporting of homeopathic efficacy is not compatible with the most update scientific evidence on the topic.