Celebrities' medical problems -- and their treatment -- can have a powerful effect on health choices made by the public at large, a new study says.
Researchers at the medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee say former First Lady Nancy Reagan's 1987 decision to undergo a mastectomy rather than breast conserving surgery (BCS) made a major impact on the number of women faced with similar decisions in the six months following.
Writing in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers cited a 25 percent decrease -- 3,400 fewer women -- who chose BCS during that period, when compared with women facing a similar decision during the three months prior. The scientists studied the records of more than 162,200 women with local or regional breast cancer.
"The effect of Mrs. Reagan's surgery was greatest among women who were demographically similar to her, white women aged 50 through 79 years, as opposed to older or younger women or nonwhite women. The effect was more prominent in the Central and Southern regions of the country, and in counties with lower levels of education and income," researchers say.
The scientists say the study shows medical care "can be influenced substantially by the behavior of celebrity role models" and provides support for the concept of using celebrities to change public health behavior.
