Health disparities and advertising content of women's magazines: a cross-sectional study.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 100968562 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1471-2458 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14712458 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Public Health Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2001-

Bibliometrics* ; Health Status Indicators*; Advertising/*statistics & numerical data ; Health Promotion/*statistics & numerical data ; Mass Media/*statistics & numerical data ; Periodicals as Topic/*statistics & numerical data ; Women's Health/*ethnology; Adolescent ; Adult ; Black or African American ; Female ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Hispanic or Latino ; Humans ; Mass Media/classification ; Middle Aged ; Socioeconomic Factors ; United States ; White People

Background: Disparities in health status among ethnic groups favor the Caucasian population in the United States on almost all major indicators. Disparities in exposure to health-related mass media messages may be among the environmental factors contributing to the racial and ethnic imbalance in health outcomes. This study evaluated whether variations exist in health-related advertisements and health promotion cues among lay magazines catering to Hispanic, African American and Caucasian women.
Methods: Relative and absolute assessments of all health-related advertising in 12 women's magazines over a three-month period were compared. The four highest circulating, general interest magazines oriented to Black women and to Hispanic women were compared to the four highest-circulating magazines aimed at a mainstream, predominantly White readership. Data were collected and analyzed in 2002 and 2003.
Results: Compared to readers of mainstream magazines, readers of African American and Hispanic magazines were exposed to proportionally fewer health-promoting advertisements and more health-diminishing advertisements. Photographs of African American role models were more often used to advertise products with negative health impact than positive health impact, while the reverse was true of Caucasian role models in the mainstream magazines.
Conclusion: To the extent that individual levels of health education and awareness can be influenced by advertising, variations in the quantity and content of health-related information among magazines read by different ethnic groups may contribute to racial disparities in health behaviors and health status.

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U56 CA92079 United States CA NCI NIH HHS; P60 MD000220 United States MD NIMHD NIH HHS; U56 CA092079 United States CA NCI NIH HHS; U56 CA92081 United States CA NCI NIH HHS; R25 CA65745 United States CA NCI NIH HHS; U56 CA092081 United States CA NCI NIH HHS; P60MD00220 United States MD NIMHD NIH HHS; P30 CA023100 United States CA NCI NIH HHS; 3 P30 CA 23100 22S2 United States CA NCI NIH HHS; R25 CA065745 United States CA NCI NIH HHS

Date Created: 20050820 Date Completed: 20060223 Latest Revision: 20221207

20221213

PMC1208907

10.1186/1471-2458-5-85

16109157