Media representation of personality disorder in Jamaica - public scholarship as a catalyst of health promotion

Abstract

Objective: To ascertain whether the public scholarship of the epidemiology of personality disorder (PD) in Jamaica prompted a health promotion outcome. Methods: A January 2011 to December 2012 trawl of news media articles linking 'PD' to published public scholarship articles on the epidemiology of PD, recorded titles and contents of the reports that were culled to capture the emotional responses and psychological defence mechanisms expressed. These were analysed with concomitant social, psychological or behavioural activities occurring in Jamaica, using SPSS version 17 software. Results: Two public scholarship interventions to two major broadsheet newspapers triggered 25 contributed articles, which in turn prompted 160 responses from the public, five commentaries on leading radio stations and four Internet blogs.