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Background: Women use magazines as sources of health-related information, including information about cancer. Given this reliance on magazines for cancer-related information, it may interest cancer educators to know which cancers are reported on in women's magazines and what types of information are being presented., Methods: Four widely circulated monthly women's magazines were analyzed for their coverage of cancers during the years 1987-1995. The types of cancers discussed and the frequencies of coverage were noted for each issue of every magazine. Additionally, the content of every cancer-related article was assessed for issues in cancer prevention (primary and secondary), risks, treatment, and genetics., Results: All four magazines in this study reported on breast cancer more often than any other cancer. Lung and colon cancers received very little coverage. The percentages of articles devoted to the six most-discussed cancers (breast, cervical, colon, lung, ovarian, and skin) did not reflect either the mortality rates or the incidence rates of these cancers., Conclusions: The discussions of cancers in these four women's magazines focused mostly on breast and skin cancers and neglected two very important cancers--lung and colon. If women are indeed receiving much of their cancer information from such media coverage, these findings should alert cancer educators to the possible need to work with these media to help in the dissemination of additional information about cancers to women.

Mass circulating magazines offer an opportunity to inform large segments of the population about preventive health behaviors relevant for cancer control. We collected information about the number and type of cancer articles from January 1987 through December 1994 in Jet, Ebony and Essence magazines. These magazines each have a principal readership of African-American women and a paid circulation of 1,000,000 or more annually. Cancer articles were counted if the content was gender neutral or specifically targeted for women. There were 84 articles on cancer including 6 on lung cancer and 3 on other tobacco-related cancers. Nine additional references to lung cancer were mentioned under the general cancer category, but lung cancer was not the primary focus of the articles. There were 24 articles on breast cancer and 9 on cervical cancer over the 8 year period. Most of the articles (> 70%) were short fillers of less than one page in length. A prevention focus was included in 42.2%, 75.0%, and 71.0% of the cancer articles in Jet, Ebony, and Essence respectively. Of the 649 health articles, 116 were on cardiovascular disease. In contrast, there were 1,477 tobacco advertisements over the 8 years. The number of cancer articles was not significantly associated with the number of tobacco advertisements. Because tobacco-related cancers are entirely preventable and contribute to the significant cancer burden, the lack of coverage of tobacco-related cancers is a missed opportunity for health promotion among African-American females.

Women's magazines are an important source of health information. To evaluate the relevancy of articles in these publications to known disease risks, seven women's magazines were reviewed to assess their coverage of colon cancer, the third leading cause of cancer mortality in U.S. women. Specifically, the amount of coverage devoted to colon cancer as well as the presentation of issues in the prevention, risks, treatment, diagnosis and genetics of colon cancer were recorded. Twenty articles were published on colon cancer in these magazines during the years 1987-1995. Compared to five other cancers that also affect women, colon cancer was the focus of the fewest articles in the seven magazines analyzed.