News — Messages warning about the association between alcohol use and breast cancer may be effective in alerting women to the risk and spurring them to reduce their drinking. A study of women in their twenties, published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that specifically designed warnings were effective in influencing women’s reactions, attitudes and beliefs, and intentions to change behavior. The findings indicate that using effective health messaging on warning labels may help increase public awareness of the increased risk of developing breast cancer associated with alcohol.
Approximately one thousand female participants, aged twenty-one to twenty-nine, were recruited for this study, which tested the effectiveness of different warning messages about the risk of breast cancer from alcohol use. A separate warning message was created for each of three health consequences related to breast cancer, namely hair loss from chemotherapy, mastectomy, and death. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of the health messages or a control message unrelated to health. Researchers measured participants’ responses to the messages, including their attention to the warnings and the emotions the messages evoked, their beliefs about the risks of breast cancer after seeing the message, and their intentions to reduce or quit drinking in the next thirty days.
All three health warnings were associated with a significantly higher intention to reduce alcohol consumption in the next thirty days. Warning messages about breast cancer consequences had significantly greater influence on participant reactions, beliefs, and intent to change compared to the non-health-related control message. Specifically, after viewing the health messages, participants’ attention, fear, hope, and perceived effectiveness were significantly higher than the control message. Additionally, participants’ perception of the severity of the consequences of alcohol use was significantly higher. Messages about death and hair loss messages, but not the mastectomy message, were associated with significantly higher perceived susceptibility to risk of alcohol-related breast cancer compared to the control message.
Researchers crafted the warnings using the ‘message impact framework’ developed from tobacco research but had not previously been tested with alcohol warnings. The framework is based on the theory that a warning message must include certain elements to effectively influence the consumer’s attention and emotional response, which in turn affect their attitudes about the danger of the product and their intent to change their behavior. Such elements include a signal word, such as ‘Warning,’ a notification of the risk, such as ‘Drinking alcohol increases the risk of developing breast cancer,’ followed by an explanation of the consequences and what individuals can do to reduce their risk.
Alcohol, as a carcinogen, has been associated with more than 10 percent of breast cancers in women. Most young women are unaware that drinking alcohol can increase their risk of breast cancer, and rates of alcohol use in young women are increasing. The study authors suggest that Health warning labels may be a cost-effective means to reduce cancer risk. They note that the novelty of the information in the warning messages may have contributed to participants’ increased attention to the messages. Periodically changing the messages has been shown to improve impact. However, since the study was a one-shot data collection, the researchers noted this experiment needs replication to verify results.
Developing and testing health warnings about alcohol and risk for breast cancer: Results from a national experiment with young adult women in the United States. Z.B. Massey, A.B. Anbari, N. Wang, A. Olajire, L.L. Lawrie, P. Martinez, D. McCarthy
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