In October, the actor Ben Stiller went public with the news that he was diagnosed two years ago with aggressive prostate cancer and urged men to go to their doctor and discuss the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which he credited with saving his life. Jolie is the not the only celebrity to bring attention to a health issue. While her doctors estimated she had a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer, Jolie was careful to say that only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Jolie has a family history of breast cancer, which claimed the life of her mother. Researchers said that suggests Jolie’s news inspired women with a lower pre-test probability of having the BRCA mutation to get tested, not women with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer. The number was 10% in the months before the announcement, but only 7% in the months after. The researchers then looked at the number of women who had BRCA tests and underwent mastectomies. In the 15 says after the news, there were about 11 tests per million, an increase of 57%. In the 15 working days before Jolie’s announcement, there were about 7 BRCA tests per million women. women between ages 18 and 64 with private health insurance. The researchers analyzed data from more than 9.5 million U.S. Personal memories serve really important functions in everyday life, said Angelina Sutin, a professor in the College of Medicine and the paper’s lead author. Quaid draws attention to health IT, but do people really care? Ray Rice fallout fuels healthcare's domestic violence prevention efforts How celebrities shape our healthcare decisions-for good or for illĪfter diagnosis, Ben Stiller urges men to talk to their doctors, get prostate cancer testĬigna requires counseling before genetic tests 'Angelina Jolie effect' lingers over breast cancerĪetna, Anthem and Cigna don't cover genetic tests made popular by 'Angelina effect' Rebecca Freedman Genetic Services of Western Australia, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Level 4 Agnes Walsh House, Bagot Road, Subiaco, Western Australia, 6008, Australia. Such announcements can be a low cost means of reaching a broad audience quickly, but they may not effectively target the sub-populations that are most at risk for the relevant underlying condition,” the study concluded.Ĭheck out some of our past coverage on how celebrities can impact healthcare awareness and trends:ĭoctors respond to Angelina Jolie's breast cancer media bombshell A Retrospective Exploration of the Impact of the Angelina Jolie Effect on the Single State-Wide Familial Cancer Program in Perth, Western Australia. “Celebrity announcements can have a large and immediate effect on use of health services.