Disease and disability representation in Japanese newspaper articles on healthy life expectancy: A text mining analysis

Background

The concept of healthy life expectancy has recently been receiving increased attention in aging Japan. However, little research has been conducted on the media discourse surrounding this concept. Given the media’s influence on public perception, the aim of this study is to explore how frequently people with diseases or disabilities are mentioned in articles discussing healthy life expectancy published by two of Japan’s major newspapers—Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun—and how they are portrayed.

Methods

Out of 2,655 articles published in these newspapers from 1997 to 2021, those that included explanations of healthy life expectancy were extracted and categorized. Subsequently, using KH Coder, a text mining software, analyses were conducted on 235 articles published in 2019 that discussed healthy life expectancy. These analyses included the listing of the most frequently appearing terms, co-occurrence networks, and Key Word in Context (KWIC).

Results

Healthy life expectancy was often described using negative expressions about illness and disability, while coexistence with such conditions was rarely mentioned. The text mining results indicated that people living with diseases or disabilities were underrepresented, and discussions on extending healthy life expectancy placed excessive emphasis on prevention.

Conclusions

The media is expected to take an active role in fostering discussions that promote a deeper understanding of healthy life expectancy and avoid negative or biased portrayals of people with diseases or disabilities. Rather than overly emphasizing disease and disability prevention, newspapers should adopt a more comprehensive approach that includes the perspectives of those living with such conditions.