Internet popularity does not equal success for cancer awareness campaigns
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In the age of digital communication, clicks, views and “likes” can be valuable measures of the visibility and reach of health awareness campaigns.
Although eye-catching visuals and compelling slogans may garner attention online, the internet popularity of a health awareness campaign does not necessarily translate to greater interest in the topic it is designed to illuminate.
A study conducted at Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California evaluated two month-long cancer outreach campaigns, “Pinktober” and “Movember,” based on 6 years of search traffic data. They found that Pinktober, which aims to raise breast cancer awareness, and Movember, which addresses men’s health concerns such as prostate and testicular cancer, had similar levels of internet popularity and engagement. However, whereas the Pinktober campaign appeared to be associated with increased searches for breast cancer information during the month of October, the Movember campaign yielded no comparable peaks in prostate cancer searches during November.
“Especially for cancer awareness campaigns, we need to use social media in the right manner,” Giovanni Cacciamani, MD, MS, assistant professor of research urology at Keck School of Medicine, said in an interview with Healio. “The aim of Movember is not to increase the popularity of prostate cancer on the web. We want to use the web as a surrogate to understand if our campaign is going in the right direction.”
Healio spoke with Cacciamani about the goals of the Movember campaign, its target population and components of awareness campaigns that could inspire proactive health behaviors, such as regular screenings.
Question: How did you evaluate the success of these campaigns?
Answer: We used Google Trends, a tool that is already validated in several fields, to analyze search data for keywords associated with Movember from 2004 to 2018. We found there were spikes for “Movember” and “moustache,” which is the campaign’s trademark. The campaign encourages men to grow moustaches during November and post pictures of them on Twitter or Instagram. The spikes we saw underlined that the marketing campaign is working fairly well. However, when we looked at the searches for “prostate cancer” and “PSA,” we didn’t see spikes correlating with the Movember campaign.
For comparison, we also evaluated web searches during the Pinktober campaign. Pinktober and pink ribbons showed spikes in October, once again demonstrating that the marketing campaign is working well. Further, when we evaluated searches for “breast cancer” and “mammograms,” we did find spikes in October.
Q : Why did the results differ?
A: According to the Pew Project, 65% of Americans use Google to find information about health conditions, and women are more likely than men to do so.
Another possibility is that the Movember campaign might not have targeted the right population. When we look at Pinktober and pink ribbons, these campaigns are reaching women who are online and concerned about breast cancer. Breast cancer represents a problem for women in that demographic. However, the population that is growing moustaches and taking selfies might be far from the people for whom prostate cancer is a real problem. The population at risk for prostate cancer might not use the internet as a daily practice. We are going to publish another paper soon that evaluates the coordination between the age-adjusted incidence of prostate cancer and web searches for prostate cancer. We found a linear correlation between who is getting prostate cancer and who is searching for prostate cancer.
Q : You discussed three checkpoints that public awareness campaigns should anticipate and address. What are these?
A: The first is awareness of a disease before a patient has the first sign of that disease. We need to use all the tools at our disposal to inform the public about these diseases.
The second checkpoint is between the first signs or symptoms of a disease and the clinical consultation. This is a point at which patients often search the internet, and when we look at websites that report information on prostate cancer, only 50% include their references. As a scientist and physician, every paper I write undergoes a review by three, four or five peer reviewers who judge my work. Without that, there is no control process. Patients can use Google to find some information about the disease, but the trap of fake news is always around the corner. They might find information stating that they can treat the cancer with vegetables or distilled water, or something like that. In the future, I hope that as physicians, we will be able to mark these websites as accurate or not. Inaccurate information may cause patients to delay treatment, and this can seriously affect the prognosis.
The third checkpoint is between the consultation and the treatment. If patients get the right information, they’ll be more inclined to follow the direction of the physician doing the medical consultation.
At each of these checkpoints, we need to have health awareness campaigns that point patients toward accurate information and important resources. – by Jennifer Byrne
Reference:
Cacciamani GE, et al. Lancet Oncol. 2019;doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30639-4.
For more information:
Giovanni Cacciamani MD, MS, can be reached at 1975 Zonal Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033; email: giovanni.cacciamani@gmail.com.
Disclosures: Cacciamani reports no relevant disclosures.