title: Health disparities and advertising content of women's magazines: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Disparities in health status among ethnic groups favor the Caucasian population in the United States on almost all major indicators. Disparities in exposure to health-related mass media messages may be among the environmental factors contributing to the racial and ethnic imbalance in health outcomes. This study evaluated whether variations exist in health-related advertisements and health promotion cues among lay magazines catering to Hispanic, African American and Caucasian women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Relative and absolute assessments of all health-related advertising in 12 women's magazines over a three-month period were compared. The four highest circulating, general interest magazines oriented to Black women and to Hispanic women were compared to the four highest-circulating magazines aimed at a mainstream, predominantly White readership. Data were collected and analyzed in 2002 and 2003.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to readers of mainstream magazines, readers of African American and Hispanic magazines were exposed to proportionally fewer health-promoting advertisements and more health-diminishing advertisements. Photographs of African American role models were more often used to advertise products with negative health impact than positive health impact, while the reverse was true of Caucasian role models in the mainstream magazines.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To the extent that individual levels of health education and awareness can be influenced by advertising, variations in the quantity and content of health-related information among magazines read by different ethnic groups may contribute to racial disparities in health behaviors and health status.
authors.affiliation: Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California-San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA 92093-0658, USA. sduerksen@projects.sdsu.edu
authors.forename: Susan C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Duerksen
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mikail
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tom
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patton
authors.forename: Janina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Amador
authors.forename: Reynaldo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Victorio
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kustin
authors.forename: Georgia Robins
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Sadler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001741:Black or African American; D015706:Bibliometrics; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology*