Spotlight on health

When celebrities go public about their health it raises awareness of diseases, but how long-lasting is this effect?

Kylie Minogue had to postpone the Australian leg of her Showgirl tour when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.

When the actress Gwyneth Paltrow revealed this week that she is suffering from osteopenia, a precursor to the brittle bone disease osteoporosis, it sparked a predictable flurry of interest. It is no suprise that the modern obsession with celebrities extends to their ill health, and it's often said that the resulting publicity has a positive affect, raising awareness of medical conditons and encouraging members of the public to seek treatment for symptoms they mght otherwise have ignored. But how big, and how long-lasting, is this effect really?

Recently, the nine-times Wimbledon champion, Martina Navratilova, has been speaking publicly about the discovery that she has breast cancer. The health and fitness ambassador for AARP (a US-based health organisation for people aged 50 and over) said she was talking about her illness in a bid to "save lives, by telling other women to be vigilant". We all know about Kylie Minogue's battle with breast cancer, and the resounding effect it had on women going for breast screenings.

A spokesperson for the UK charity Breast Cancer Care thinks that celebrities who are upfront about their illnesses have a significant impact on public health: "Kylie's experience of breast cancer has undoubtedly made more women aware that the disease can affect women of all ages, and has also raised awareness of the importance of being breast aware - knowing what changes to look for in their breasts and to report anything unusual to their GP. This is an important factor as we know that early detection may lead to more simple and effective treatment."

But, says Dr Alison Ross, the senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, famous cases can also send out the wrong message: "It can be confusing when celebrities like Kylie Minogue are diagnosed with cancer in their thirties, as eight in 10 cases of breast cancer occur in women over the age of 50. While it's helpful to raise awareness of the disease, it can cause young women to worry unnecessarily, and may also mislead older women to think that ageing is not a factor in breast cancer."

Another celebrity to share her struggle following a cervical cancer diagnosis was the British reality-TV star Jade Goody. From the minute she was given the bad news, through her struggle to cope with the disease, to her funeral procession, nothing was off-limits to the British media. Despite criticism that a vulnerable young woman was being exploited, there is no doubt that by going public with her fight against the disease, Goody increased the number of British women (especially those in the hard-to-reach 25-35 age group) going for smear tests. Dubbed the "Jade effect" by the British media, it saw reports of demand for screening increasing by more than 20 per cent.

And it's not just women speaking out. There has been an increasing number of male celebrities openly discussing their illnesses. Michael J Fox has been raising awareness for Parkinson's disease since going public with it several years ago, as well as helping to campaign in support of stem cell research. And the British novelist Terry Pratchett, who has sold millions of novels worldwide, has given several televised interviews (as well as donating more than half a million pounds towards finding a cure) since being diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's in 2007.

However, a recent BBC report found anecdotal evidence from UK doctors that despite the column inches devoted to cervical cancer in the wake of Jade Goody's diagnosis and subsequent death, the number of British women attending for smear tests has once again fallen. Long-term studies have yet to be undertaken, and for the moment, it remains unclear how long lasting a temporary celebrity-inspired bump in awareness really is.