Celebrities can have a huge impact on public persuasion.  Oscar-winning actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie is one such famous person who can mobilize an audience particularly when it comes to health prevention. 

Back in 2013, Jolie announced her decision to have a double mastectomy when she was informed by her doctor that she carried the mutated BRCA1 gene known to raise a woman’s risk of breast and ovarian cancers.  She was quoted saying back then, “My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman.”  A mastectomy is a surgical procedure to remove the entire breast. 

After Jolie made the announcement, the number of women getting tested for the genes that raise the risk jumped significantly yet there was no parallel increase rate of women needing a mastectomy. 

A recent observational study wanted to find out what effect Jolie’s decision on making a public announcement in a 2013 New York Times editorial had on influencing women to also be tested for this same gene mutation.  When the power of social media is combined with the power of someone such as Angelina Jolie, there is bound to be some sort of crusade-like effect on making people change in some manner.

The study collected data on more than 9 million U.S. women aged 18 to 64 to measure the effect of Jolie’s public announcement.  From there, the researchers analyzed the rates of BRCA testing and mastectomies before and after Jolie’s decision in 2013.

Findings showed that there was a 64 percent increase in women getting tested for the mutated gene compared to the number of women getting tested before Jolie’s announcement.  The testing rates rose from 0.71 per 100,000 women in the 15 business days before Jolie’s disclosure to 1.13 per 100,000 women in the 15 business days after her disclosure.  This figured out to be an absolute daily increase of 0.45 tests per 100,000 women or a $13.5 million increase in spending on BRCA testing in this population.  A year before Jolie’s announcement, BRCA testing rates were unchanged during the same time frame. 

Researchers from the study were quick to point out that their study did not prove that Jolie’s revelation on her decision caused women to get tested but most likely her honesty and how her message was portrayed did have a direct effect in raising awareness of BRCA testing and preventive care. 

One interesting finding from the study was that even though testing for the BRCA gene skyrocketed, there was not a corresponding increase in mastectomy rates.  In fact, the study found that the rate for mastectomies among women who had BRCA testing actually dropped from an average of 10 percent to 7 percent during 2013.  The increase in BRCA testing did not find additional women who carried the gene mutation requiring preventive mastectomy. 

This raises the question of whether celebrity health announcements are effective for the audience that is most at risk and what their responsibility is in relaying the correct facts of the topic.  On the one hand it is a good way to raise awareness of a specific health condition reaching a wide audience quickly.  But the message may not effectively target the subpopulations that are most at risk for the particular ailment.  The public still needs to inquire with a trained health professional like their doctor to know what is best for them.  Not all celebrity endorsements of being tested for certain health conditions suggest it is right for everyone in the general public to do the same.

According to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, only about 5-10 percent of all breast cancers diagnosed in the U.S. are due to inherited gene mutations known to increase risk.  Testing for either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene should be discussed with a woman’s physician.  They are qualified on assessing a woman’s risk depending on her family history of breast cancer along with other risk factors to be able to determine if gene testing is necessary or not.  This can help eliminate unnecessary testing and added medical expenses among the general population.

Bottom line, the public needs to get their health information from qualified medical professionals after reading or hearing about a celebrities health issues before making any unnecessary or uninformed conclusions regarding their own health.