Ambassador Steve Harvey: The Role of Celebrities in Communicating the Cancer Message

Background: Despite an overall decrease in cancer mortality, African Americans continue to have higher incidence and higher rates and, lower survival rates from this disease.  Cancer prevention and early detection, followed by effective treatment is known to play a critical role in increasing survivorship for African Americans.  Yet, African Americans are less likely to participate in cancer screening or receive high quality treatment, more likely to engage in behaviors that increase their risk for cancer and, more often than Whites present with comorbid conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.  Information is a critical step to improve cancer health outcomes in the African American Community. Traditional health communication materials and delivery mechanism may not be culturally or educationally appropriate and fall short in meeting the cancer information needs of many African Americans

Program background: There is evidence that using celebrities to communicate health messages is effective at increasing awareness and changing health behavior.  This presentation will describe the process and outcomes of engaging comedian, actor, best-selling author and top radio personality, Steve Harvey, as an American Cancer Society (ACS) ambassador to increase cancer awareness among African Americans

Evaluation Methods and Results: The project team met with Harvey to discuss the importance of African Americans taking charge of their health and his role in a call to action. There were three main activities employing the personal narrative technique planned for the partnership:  a prostate cancer video; a colorectal cancer video; and public service announcements for breast cancer early detection.  Harvey would also use his radio show to highlight cancer topics. To date, Harvey has completed a video diary titled, “All Jokes Aside” that chronicles his colonoscopy experience and encourages men and women 50 and over to get screened for colorectal cancer.  In the video, Harvey is viewed throughout the colonoscopy process.  He openly shares his fears about cancer, his fears about the procedure, and his fears about hearing the results. To date, more than 50,000 copies of the video have been distributed to health plans, state government and African American civic and social organizations.

Conclusions: By engaging entertainer Steve Harvey as a health communicator, ACS was able to reach a core group of African Americans on a consistent basis with a culturally competent message. Harvey is a trusted and respected voice in the community, who reaches millions of listeners each week. His personal journey toward better health makes him an ideal partner to disseminate targeted messages aimed at raising awareness among the African American population and motivating them to take charge of their health to enjoy longer, healthier lives.

Implications for research and/or practice: Next steps for this partnership include production of the prostate DVD using barbershops to encourage shared decision making around screening and the development of public service announcements to encourage healthy eating and mammography.  Research is needed to evaluate the reach of the DVD, its impact on cancer knowledge and awareness, and its impact on screening behavior for African Americans