At the risk of sounding like Buzzfeed, you weren’t an Aussie teen growing up in the late 80s – 90s if you didn’t turn to Dolly Doctor to answer all your burning questions, from ‘Is throat thrush a thing bc I’m worried my bf has given it to me?’ to ‘Is green discharge normal pls help’.
The hours spent poring over the pages of the local magazine’s medical were well-spent, as it turns out, because new research has find Australian readers looking for health advice are better off buying Dolly than any magazine with “health” in its title.
The University of Newcastle found only 50% of the advice articles published in magazines like Women’s Health, Good Health and Men’s Health were based on evidence with any substance, while just over one-third gave clear and meaningful advice.
The study of 163 articles – published over six months in 2011 – gave props to Dolly Doctor for presenting information on everything from UTIs and STDs in an accessible, factual way that was overall preferable to other titles.
“This magazine (Dolly) provided excellent examples of ethical ways to deliver health advice and also highlighted the need for this type of advice to be provided for this particular age group,” says author Dr Amanda Wilson, whose paper was published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.
Obviously no one should be taking medical advice from a magazine as gospel, but we always had a feeling in our ~waters~ Dolly Doctor knew what’s up and the validation is most pleasing.
Source: The University Of Newcastle.
Photo: Vintage Dolly.
