title: Media attention and public perceptions of cancer and eastern equine encephalitis.
abstract: Previous research has found that members of the public have a skewed sense of health risk. The purpose of this research was to investigate how mass media use influences perceptions of threat from cancer and eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). Investigators performed a media content analysis of 253 health-related articles from 11 Massachusetts newspapers, then used logistic regression to analyze responses to a health communication survey of 613 Massachusetts adults. A greater proportion of cancer articles compared to those about EEE mentioned progress in combating the disease (61.0% vs. 16.2%, P < 0.0001), while a greater proportion of EEE articles mentioned new incidents of illness (35.4%, vs. 4.6% P < 0.0001). Over half of all respondents perceived EEE as an equal or greater threat than cancer. Paying a lot of attention to health media was related to higher odds of perceiving EEE as a threat (OR 2.14; 95% CI 1.03-4.45), and of perceiving EEE as a threat compared to cancer (OR 2.18; 95% CI 1.24-3.84). Media treatment of health stories that emphasize the novelty and unpredictability of EEE compared to cancer may lead to distorted perceptions of threat among news consumers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health and Sustainability, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 3 Solomont Way, Suite 3, Lowell, MA 01854, USA. Leland_ackerson@uml.edu
authors.forename: Leland K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Ackerson
authors.forename: Kasisomayajula
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Viswanath
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D020242:Encephalomyelitis, Eastern Equine / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D009524:Newspapers as Topic; D010465:Perception; D011639:Public Opinion; D012306:Risk; D055815:Young Adult