The Effect of Public Figure Announcements about Breast Cancer Diagnosis on Health Communication Behaviors in Japanese Women

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: Public figure announcements about health narratives impact on public perception about health and illness, and health behaviors. On September 23, 2015, Akira Hokuto who is a former professional wrestler and celebrity revealed to have  suffered from breast cancer. Media coverage has been extensive, and the public might have responded. However, it is not obvious what the substantive effects of public figure announcement are. Therefore, the present study was to examine public reaction to the announcement, and what messages the public took from Hokuto’s breast cancer announcements.

Methods: The participants were 2,928 Japanese women aged 20-69 years who responded to the internet-based cross-sectional survey. The questionnaire contained prevalence of obtaining information about Hokuto’s cancer diagnosis, information sources, contents of messages from this announcement, health communication behaviors, sociodemgraphic variables, health status, experience of breast cancer screening, and breast cancer histories. Health communication behaviors were information-seeking about prevention, information-seeking about screening, cancer-preventive behavior, and cancer screening behaviors (take or reserve breast cancer screening). Contents of receiving message have been confirmed description of specific seven categories. Multivariable logistic regression analysis that adjusted for sociodemographic valiables, experience of screening, and cancer history was used to examine the associations of the received massages with health communication behaviors.

Results: Overall, 77.4% of respondents (n=2,265) had obtained information about Hokuto’s cancer diagnosis. The most prevalence of information source was television (92.1%) followed by the Internet (25.8%) and smartphone (12.1%). Of the 2,265 respondents, 5.5% sought information about prevention, 8.3% sought information about screening, 1.7% changed lifestyle such as vegetables intakes, and physical activity, alcohols intakes, and 9.1% took or reserved screening. Of the specific seven categories, 24.5% received messages that she could not be found cancer although she had received regular breast cancer screening, 13.4% received that she had the breast completely removed, 10.7% received that she is continuing the anticancer treatment and/or radiation therapy, and a few percentage of respondents received that cancer screening is important, her cancer was discovered difficult position, her cancer is in progress, and her cancer have spread to the lymph nodes. Participants received message about importance of screening were more likely to seek information about prevention (AOR, 95%CI: 5.52, 2.78-11.0), seek information about screening (4.19, 2.15-8.14) and take screening behavior (2.90, 1.37-6.14). Participants receiving message that regular screening could not be found were more likely to take screening behavior (1.61, 1.17-2.24). Receiving messages about treatment of details (1.71, 1.11-2.63) and cancer metastasis (2.14, 1.08-4.22) were positively associated with seeking information about screening.

Conclusions: Although three of four Japanese women had obtained information about Hokuto’s cancer, fewer than 10% of respondents promoted health communication behaviors. However, receiving specific messages from Hokuto’s announcement was associated with some health communication behaviors. The findings suggest that public figure announcements about cancer, specifically, message on the importance of cancer screening and prevention, had meaningful effect on health communication behaviors.

Implications for research and/or practice: Whenever possible, it is necessary to prepare effective public messages for an immediate launch in the event of celebrity's cancer.