Institute of Clinical Education, Warwick Medical School, Coventry, UK.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2011 Mar;33(1):80-5. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdq052. Epub 2010 Aug 2.
Celebrity diagnoses can have important effects on public behaviour. UK television celebrity Jade Goody died from cervical cancer in 2009. We investigated the impact of her illness on media coverage of cervical cancer prevention, health information seeking behaviour and cervical screening coverage.
National UK newspaper articles containing the words 'Jade Goody' and 'cancer' were examined for public health messages. Google Insights for Search was used to quantify Internet searches as a measure of public health information seeking. Cervical screening coverage data were examined for temporal associations with this story.
Of 1203 articles, 116 (9.6%) included a clear public health message. The majority highlighted screening (8.2%). Fewer articles provided advice about vaccination (3.0%), number of sexual partners (1.4%), smoking (0.6%) and condom use (0.4%). Key events were associated with increased Internet searches for 'cervical cancer' and 'smear test', although only weakly with searches for 'HPV'. Cervical screening coverage increased during this period.
Increased public interest in disease prevention can follow a celebrity diagnosis. Although media coverage sometimes included public health information, articles typically focused on secondary instead of primary prevention. There is further potential to maximize the public health benefit of future celebrity diagnoses.
名人诊断结果可能对公众行为产生重要影响。2009 年，英国电视名人杰德·古迪因宫颈癌去世。我们调查了她的病情对宫颈癌预防的媒体报道、健康信息搜索行为和宫颈癌筛查覆盖率的影响。
对含有“杰德·古迪”和“癌症”这两个词的英国全国性报纸文章进行了检查，以寻找公共卫生信息。谷歌趋势（Google Insights for Search）用于量化作为公共卫生信息搜索衡量指标的互联网搜索量。同时检查了宫颈癌筛查覆盖率数据，以了解与该事件的时间关联。
在 1203 篇文章中，有 116 篇（9.6%）包含明确的公共卫生信息。其中大部分强调了筛查（8.2%）。提供有关疫苗接种（3.0%）、性伴侣数量（1.4%）、吸烟（0.6%）和使用避孕套（0.4%）的建议的文章较少。关键事件与“宫颈癌”和“巴氏涂片检查”的搜索量增加有关，但与“HPV”的搜索量增加仅微弱相关。在此期间，宫颈癌筛查覆盖率有所增加。
公众对疾病预防的兴趣可能会随着名人诊断结果而增加。尽管媒体报道有时包括公共卫生信息，但文章通常侧重于二级预防而不是一级预防。进一步提高未来名人诊断结果的公共卫生效益具有更大潜力。
