title: Do celebrity cancer diagnoses promote primary cancer prevention?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Celebrity cancer diagnoses generate considerable media coverage of and increase interest in cancer screening, but do they also promote primary cancer prevention?
  
  
  METHODS
  Daily trends for smoking cessation-related media (information-availability) and Google queries (information-seeking) around Brazilian President and smoker Lula da Silva's laryngeal cancer diagnosis announcements were compared to a typical period and several cessation awareness events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cessation media coverage was 163% (95% confidence interval, 54-328) higher than expected the week after the announcement but returned to typical levels the second week. Cessation queries were 67% (95% confidence interval, 40-96) greater the week after Lula's announcement, remaining 153% (95% confidence interval, 121-188), 130% (95% confidence interval, 101-163) and 71% (95% confidence interval, 43-100) greater during the second, third, and fourth week after the announcement. There were 1.1 million excess cessation queries the month after Lula's announcement, eclipsing query volumes for the week around New Years Day, World No Tobacco Day, and Brazilian National No Smoking Day.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Just as celebrity diagnoses promote cancer screening, they may also promote primary prevention. Discovery of this dynamic suggests the public should be further encouraged to consider primary (in addition to the usual secondary) cancer prevention around celebrity diagnoses, though more cases, cancers, and prevention behaviors must be explored.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA. Electronic address: ayers.john.w@gmail.com.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ayers
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Althouse
authors.affiliation: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Seth M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Noar
authors.affiliation: Institute for Global Tobacco Control, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Joanna E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003146:Communications Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005197:Famous Persons; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D011322:Primary Prevention; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Digital disease detection; Health communication; Tobacco control