Table 2.

Health Reporting Characteristics of the Study Population.

Characteristics	n	%
What percent effort is focused on health reporting?
1–24% 25–49% 50–74% >75% Declined to answer	28 20 8 11 4	39.4 28.2 11.3 15.5 5.6
Areas of focus in health reporting †
Healthcare quality and performance Consumer/lifestyle health Local health issues Health policy Health disparities Global health issues Research and science Health economics Other	50 48 40 28 22 14 14 5 2	70.4 67.6 56.3 39.4 31.0 19.7 19.7 7.0 2.8
Sources for health reporting topics †
Personal contacts Public or governmental agencies Other news sources NGOs Online informal sources Unsolicited from public Medical journals Editors	58 50 35 34 33 32 26 19	81.7 70.4 49.3 47.9 46.5 45.1 36.6 26.8
Suspected a colleague manufactured a quote regarding a health event
Yes No Declined to answer	44 24 3	62.0 33.8 4.2
Barriers most applicable to health journalism in Nepal †
Lack of knowledge/experience among journalists Lack of in-depth coverage Lack of financial resources Lack of personnel Influence of advertisers Influence of political or government officials Making difficult issues easier to understand Other	46 45 41 39 25 22 14 1	64.8 63.4 57.7 54.9 35.2 31.0 19.7 1.4
Desired skills for health reporting improvement †
Understand and utilize epidemiology terminology Multimedia reporting Interpret health reports Map health conditions and services Understand hospital or other financial reports How to search for health information online How to understand opinion polls and surveys Evaluate conflicts of interest Understand statistics Work with Excel or other analytical software	52 46 43 41 35 33 32 28 25 24	73.2 64.8 60.6 57.7 49.3 46.5 45.1 39.4 35.2 33.8

† = multiple responses allowed.