title: Using digital surveillance to examine the impact of public figure pancreatic cancer announcements on media and search query outcomes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Announcements of cancer diagnoses from public figures may stimulate cancer information seeking and media coverage about cancer. This study used digital surveillance to quantify the effects of pancreatic cancer public figure announcements on online cancer information seeking and cancer media coverage.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compiled a list of public figures (N = 25) who had been diagnosed with or had died from pancreatic cancer between 2006 and 2011. We specified interrupted time series models using data from Google Trends to examine search query shifts for pancreatic cancer and other cancers. Weekly media coverage archived on Google News were also analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most public figures' pancreatic cancer announcements corresponded with no appreciable change in pancreatic cancer search queries or media coverage. In contrast, Patrick Swayze's diagnosis was associated with a 285% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 212 to 360) increase in pancreatic cancer search queries, though it was only weakly associated with increases in pancreatic cancer media coverage. Steve Jobs's death was associated with a 197% (95% CI: 131 to 266) increase in pancreatic cancer queries and a 3517% (95% CI: 2882 to 4492) increase in pancreatic cancer media coverage. In general, a doubling in pancreatic cancer-specific media coverage corresponded with a 325% increase in pancreatic cancer queries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Digital surveillance is an important tool for future cancer control research and practice. The current application of these methods suggested that pancreatic cancer announcements (diagnosis or death) by particular public figures stimulated media coverage of and online information seeking for pancreatic cancer.
authors.affiliation: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 363 Carroll Hall (CB 3365), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3365. noar@email.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Seth M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Noar
authors.forename: Kurt M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ribisl
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Althouse
authors.forename: Jessica Fitts
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Willoughby
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ayers
mesh_terms: D005197:Famous Persons; D015438:Health Behavior; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D008402:Mass Media / Q000639:trends*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D057386:Search Engine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*