Exposure to fictional medical television and health: a systematic review

Fictional medical television programs have long been a staple of television programming, and they remain popular today. We aimed to examine published literature assessing the influence of medical television programs on health outcomes. We conducted systematic literature searches in PubMed, PsychINFO and CINAHL. Selected studies had to be scholarly research, to involve exposure to fictionalized medical television programming, and to assess associations between exposures and outcomes. Of 3541 unique studies identified, nineteen met selection criteria. The most commonly studied programs were ER (73%), Grey's Anatomy (58%) and House M.D. (37%). Outcomes included knowledge, perceptions and behaviors related to topics as diverse as organ donation, cancer screening, sexually transmitted infections, and heart disease. Viewing fictional medical television programs had a negative influence on viewers' health-related knowledge, perceptions and/or behavior in 11% of studies, a positive influence in 32% of studies, and mixed influence in 58%. While most studies (58%) were characterized as having fair quality in terms of rigor of study design, 21% were classified as good and 21% were classified as poor. As such, medical television can affect health education and outcomes. Future work should utilize randomization, more longitudinal assessments, and more direct assessments of health education and behavioral outcomes.