Do mass media affect Medicare beneficiaries' use of diabetes services?
BACKGROUND
Appropriate secondary preventive care for people with diabetes can reduce complications and premature death, yet many people with diabetes do not get these services. Mass media may influence individual health behavior.


METHODS
In 1999, the West Virginia Medical Institute (WVMI) began a long-term radio and television campaign to educate West Virginia Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes about the importance of foot exams, eye exams, HbA1c testing, and influenza and pneumonia immunizations using messages with an "Ask your doctor about..." formula. To assess campaign efficacy, WVMI commissioned a telephone survey of 1500 randomly selected beneficiaries likely to have diabetes in two groups of counties with differing exposure to the messages. The survey asked whether the beneficiary had heard the messages and responded to them, by message topic.


RESULTS
Nearly everyone (90%) in both survey groups said they had seen or heard the diabetes ads. However, high-exposure group members were about 1.2 times more likely to recall hearing most messages than low-exposure group members, and were 1.2 to 1.8 times more likely to say that they did what the messages suggested.


CONCLUSIONS
Media campaigns with preventive health messages targeted to Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes can reach them and may induce appropriate responses.
Schade
Charles P
CP
West Virginia Medical Institute, Charleston, West Virginia 25304, USA. cshade@wvmi.org
McCombs
Marc
M
D003625:Data Collection; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008402:Mass Media; D006278:Medicare; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D022242:Pneumococcal Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D014481:United States; D014903:West Virginia
D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D022242:Pneumococcal Vaccines