12 Dec 2014

Gossipy magazines more likely to be stolen

7:37 pm on 12 December 2014

Some Auckland University researchers have discovered why doctors' waiting rooms have such old magazines - it is because people keep taking the newer, gossipy ones.

Their study, called an "exploration of the basis for patient complaints about the oldness of magazine in practice waiting rooms" is in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal.

The researchers left 87 different magazines in a waiting room in South Auckland.

After 31 days, more than half had disappeared.

The magazines which were left were considered serious publications, like Time magazine and the Economist.

However, all but one of the 27 glossy "gossip" magazines had been taken.

The study suggests that, on the grounds of cost, medical practices should only supply old and serious magazines.