Cancer education support project: Spread of cancer education in Japan based on web search

Abstract

Abstract Background Since 2019, cancer education has been introduced in health classes from junior high school students in Japan. This research contributes to how “cancer education,” which is a newly launched cancer countermeasure plan, penetrates the general public. Methods In August 2018, the authors prepared an operation manual for classifying Web search results. A researcher majoring in informatics performed the operations outlined below. For the list (top 100 results of a Google search) of the Web search results using “cancer education” as the keyword, the link destinations starting from the top result were viewed in order using the browser.The name of the organization, the format of information media, summary of website information, and actions in case of a broken link were documented by the researcher. Results “Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Elementary and Secondary Education Bureau” occurred the most frequently at the rate of four times when the source word was “cancer education.” When this rate of occurrence was tabulated by the organization, the order was as follows: average companies (21.7%), prefectural (17.4), medical facility (12.0), and educational committee (9.8). In the format of information media, page link was the most common, followed by news articles and PDF files. The business type of the average companies were classified as follows: internet operations (30%), new website management companies (20), mail-order companies (15), and pharmaceutical companies (10). Conclusions Although public facilities and hospitals were more commonly involved in promoting cancer education, the holding of educational seminars by insurance companies and the creation and publication of cancer educational videos by pharmaceutical companies gradually trigger the interest of private companies in cancer education. The possibility of contribution to future development was demonstrated. This work was supported by 14th Hakuho Research Grant. Key messages In Japan, cancer education was introduced to school education from 2019. Private companies are expected to entry into cancer education in the future.