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

Susan C Duerksen,Xavier Amador,Janina Lopez,Laura Tom,Georgia Robins Sadler,Annie Patton,Brenda Kustin,Maria Victorio,Reynaldo Vargas,Amy Mikail

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-5-85

Abstract

BackgroundDisparities 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.MethodsRelative 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.ResultsCompared 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.ConclusionTo 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.

Highlights

Disparities in health status among ethnic groups favor the Caucasian population in the United States on almost all major indicators
This study reports on the development and testing of a methodology designed to facilitate a more in-depth qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the health information and cues provided in lay magazines [55]
After taking the number of pages, page sizes, and publication frequency into account, the proportion of magazine space devoted to all advertising was similar for the African American and mainstream magazines, but lower for the Hispanic magazines (30%)

Summary

Introduction

Disparities in health status among ethnic groups favor the Caucasian population in the United States on almost all major indicators. Disparities in health status among racial and ethnic groups favor the Caucasian population in the United States on almost all major indicators [1,2,3,4]. Hispanics have among the highest rates of hypertension, diabetes and AIDS, along with low rates of access to health care, diagnostic screenings and early prenatal care [1,8,10,11] Both Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to be obese and to report low levels of leisure time physical activity [5,8]. Relative to non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanic women have high rates of cervical cancer, AIDS, teen pregnancy, and obesity, and are less likely to access basic health services [12,14,18,19]

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