Musculoskeletal Magazine Advertising Focuses on White Individuals and Overlooks Minority Consumers

Demographic disparities in musculoskeletal (MSK) health exist in the US. Racial representation in advertising has been shown to influence consumer behavior and buying patterns. Direct-to-consumer advertising that does not target a racially diverse audience may exacerbate MSK disparities by failing to reach minorities. We explore the hypothesis that minorities are underrepresented in direct-to-consumer MSK advertisements in this cross-sectional analysis.

Using magazines from four databases, eight health-related magazine types were selected and advertisement categories were established. Racial distribution was analyzed using Pearson's Chi-squared and Chi-squared tests. Fisher's Exact test was used when >20% of cells had expected frequencies <5. Significance was set at α = 0.05.

Of the advertisements featuring at least one model, 68.5% featured a white-presenting model, followed by 17.6% with a black model. Further, 92.7% of advertisements were monoethnic or monoracial with an overrepresentation of white models (p < 0.001). Black models were overrepresented as athletes (p < 0.001) and underrepresented in advertisements for pain relief (p < 0.001). Hispanic/Latinx and Asian models were underrepresented across all advertisement categories (p < 0.001).

The causes of musculoskeletal health disparities are multifactorial. One potential influence is adjacent industries such as MSK health-related advertisements. When controlling for US population demographics, white models were overrepresented and minority race models were underrepresented, demonstrating racioethnic disparities in MSK advertising. Improving the racial and ethnic diversity of models within MSK advertisements may serve to improve patient perceptions of orthopaedic products and services and improve MSK disparities.