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Comparative Study
. 2011 Oct 12:11:442.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-11-442.

The effect of breast cancer awareness month on internet search activity--a comparison with awareness campaigns for lung and prostate cancer

Ronan W Glynn  1 , John C Kelly, Norma Coffey, Karl J Sweeney, Michael J Kerin
Affiliations
Comparative Study

The effect of breast cancer awareness month on internet search activity--a comparison with awareness campaigns for lung and prostate cancer

Ronan W Glynn et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: This work aimed to assess the effects of the annual breast cancer awareness campaign on internet search activity, and to compare these effects with those of similar campaigns in prostate and lung cancer. We further aimed to assess overall levels of online activity relating to all three neoplasms between 2004 and 2009.

Methods: Google Insights for Search was employed to examine search trends for the term "breast cancer", across all Google domains between January 2004 and December 2009 (6 years). Search trends for both "prostate cancer" and "lung cancer" across all domains were also analysed for the same period, and these trends were compared with those for "breast cancer". Repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc analyses were performed to assess for significant differences in activity.

Results: Increased levels of online activity relating to breast cancer are consistently generated each October. There is a significantly higher level of background activity in breast cancer compared with that in lung or prostate cancer (p < 0.001), and the October campaign stimulates online activity more effectively than equivalent campaigns for these other malignancies (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: The annual breast cancer awareness campaign is proving effective in stimulating online activity and may hold useful lessons for other cancer awareness initiatives.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scatter plot for mean activity on breast cancer versus month. Peak search activity was recorded in October 2004, and all other data is normalised relative to this peak.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Main effects plot for breast cancer. The plot on the left demonstrates search activity for each month, where each point is the average of all values for a particular month across all years, e.g. point 1 is the average search activity for January across all years. The plot on the right shows the effect of year, where each point is the average search activity for a particular year.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Main effects plot for prostate cancer. The plot on the left demonstrates search activity for each month, where each point is the average of all values for a particular month across all years, e.g. point 1 is the average search activity for January across all years. The plot on the right shows the effect of year, where each point is the average search activity for a particular year.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Main effects plot for lung cancer. The plot on the left demonstrates search activity for each month; each point is the average of all values across all years, e.g. point 1 is the average search activity for January across all years. The plot on the right shows the effect of year; each point is the average search activity for a particular year.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Interaction plot for cancers by year. The plot on the left demonstrates search activity for each of the three cancers; each point is the average search activity for a particular year. The plot on the right shows search activity by month; each point represents an average of all values for a particular month across all years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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