TY - JOUR
T1 - Do celebrity cancer diagnoses promote primary cancer prevention?
AU - Ayers, John W.
AU - Althouse, Benjamin M.
AU - Noar, Seth M.
AU - Cohen, Joanna E.
N1 - Funding Information:
The Institute for Global Tobacco Control with funding from the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use . JWA was also supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute ( RCA173299A ). The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use and NCI had no role in the design, conduct or implementation of the study.
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - Objective: Celebrity cancer diagnoses generate considerable media coverage of and increase interest in cancer screening, but do they also promote primary cancer prevention? Methods: Daily trends for smoking cessation-related media (information-availability) and Google queries (information-seeking) around Brazilian President and smoker Lula da Silva's laryngeal cancer diagnosis announcements were compared to a typical period and several cessation awareness events. Results: Cessation media coverage was 163% (95% confidence interval, 54-328) higher than expected the week after the announcement but returned to typical levels the second week. Cessation queries were 67% (95% confidence interval, 40-96) greater the week after Lula's announcement, remaining 153% (95% confidence interval, 121-188), 130% (95% confidence interval, 101-163) and 71% (95% confidence interval, 43-100) greater during the second, third, and fourth week after the announcement. There were 1.1. million excess cessation queries the month after Lula's announcement, eclipsing query volumes for the week around New Years Day, World No Tobacco Day, and Brazilian National No Smoking Day. Conclusion: Just as celebrity diagnoses promote cancer screening, they may also promote primary prevention. Discovery of this dynamic suggests the public should be further encouraged to consider primary (in addition to the usual secondary) cancer prevention around celebrity diagnoses, though more cases, cancers, and prevention behaviors must be explored.
AB - Objective: Celebrity cancer diagnoses generate considerable media coverage of and increase interest in cancer screening, but do they also promote primary cancer prevention? Methods: Daily trends for smoking cessation-related media (information-availability) and Google queries (information-seeking) around Brazilian President and smoker Lula da Silva's laryngeal cancer diagnosis announcements were compared to a typical period and several cessation awareness events. Results: Cessation media coverage was 163% (95% confidence interval, 54-328) higher than expected the week after the announcement but returned to typical levels the second week. Cessation queries were 67% (95% confidence interval, 40-96) greater the week after Lula's announcement, remaining 153% (95% confidence interval, 121-188), 130% (95% confidence interval, 101-163) and 71% (95% confidence interval, 43-100) greater during the second, third, and fourth week after the announcement. There were 1.1. million excess cessation queries the month after Lula's announcement, eclipsing query volumes for the week around New Years Day, World No Tobacco Day, and Brazilian National No Smoking Day. Conclusion: Just as celebrity diagnoses promote cancer screening, they may also promote primary prevention. Discovery of this dynamic suggests the public should be further encouraged to consider primary (in addition to the usual secondary) cancer prevention around celebrity diagnoses, though more cases, cancers, and prevention behaviors must be explored.
KW - Digital disease detection
KW - Health communication
KW - Tobacco control
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ypmed.2013.11.007
DO - 10.1016/j.ypmed.2013.11.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 24252489
AN - SCOPUS:84890167593
SN - 0091-7435
VL - 58
SP - 81
EP - 84
JO - Preventive Medicine
JF - Preventive Medicine
IS - 1
ER -