When a celebrity is diagnosed with a smoking-related cancer, interest in quitting smoking[1] among the general public increases, according to a new study.


A team of researchers found that when Brazil President Lula da Silva was diagnosed in 2011 with laryngeal cancer, which he said was caused by smoking, online search activity regarding quitting smoking and media coverage on quitting smoking increased in the days after. Plus, this interest in smoking cessation remained higher than normal even a month after his diagnosis was announced.


"This study is the first to demonstrate that celebrity diagnoses [2] can prompt the public to engage in behaviors that prevent cancer," study researcher Seth M. Noar, a health communication professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a statement. "Harnessing this finding will save far more lives than screening alone."


Noar and his colleagues, from the Santa Fe Institute, San Diego State University and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, examined Google news archives to look at media coverage, and also analyzed Googled searches, in the weeks following the announcement of da Silva's laryngeal cancer diagnosis in October 2011. They found that news coverage about quitting smoking rose 500 percent right after his diagnosis was announced, and stayed higher by 163 percent for the week following his diagnosis. During this time, Google searches for quitting smoking also were 67 percent higher than normal.


While media coverage about quitting smoking went back down to normal levels after the week following the diagnosis, Google searches about smoking cessation remained high. Brazil Google searches related to quitting smoking were 153 percent higher than normal two weeks after the diagnosis, 130 percent higher than normal three weeks after the diagnosis, and 71 percent higher than normal four weeks after the diagnosis.


"In practical terms, we estimated there were about 1.1 million more quit-smoking queries in Brazil the month after Lula’s diagnosis than expected," study researcher Benjamin Althouse, an epidemiologist at the Santa Fe Institute, said in the statement.


"Just as celebrity diagnoses promote cancer screening, they may also promote primary prevention," the researchers wrote in the Preventive Medicine study[3] . "Discovery of this dynamic suggests the public should be further encouraged to consider primary (in addition to the usual secondary) cancer prevention around celebrity diagnoses, though more cases, cancers, and prevention behaviors must be explored."



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  • Jennifer Aniston


    The <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/12/jennifer-aniston-engaged-justin-theroux_n_1771083.html">recently engaged star</a> is <a href="http://www.elle.com/pop-culture/cover-shoots/women-in-hollywood-2011-605864#slide-1">no stranger to pregnancy rumors</a>. <a href="http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/201203/jennifer-aniston-paul-rudd-gq-march-2012-cover-story">But she told GQ earlier this year</a> that one persistent baby rumor might have come after she kicked the cigarette habit. "Well, I recently quit smoking, and you do put on some extra pounds," she told the magazine. "It makes a difference, especially if you're not 20."




  • Barack Obama


    The POTUS, who started lighting up as a teenager, had a long battle with nicotine addiction. "I constantly struggle with it," he said in a 2009 news conference, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/08/michelle-obama-president-_n_820340.html">HuffPost previously reported</a>. When he was first deciding to run for president, now first lady Michelle Obama said one of her requirements was that he kick the habit once and for all. And while he tried to quit during his 2008 campaign, it wasn't until 2011 that his wife broke the news that he had been smoke-free for a year, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/08/michelle-obama-president-_n_820340.html">according to the HuffPost report</a>. Later that year, President Obama's doctor also confirmed that he successfully quit smoking, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/11/01/obamas-doctor-says-hes-fit-for-duty-and-tobacco-free/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=WSJ_health">the Wall Street Journal reported</a>.




  • Gisele Bundchen


    The model -- <a href="http://videos.huffingtonpost.com/entertainment/gisele-bundchen-confirms-pregnancy-517452968">who is pregnant with her second child</a> with husband and football star Tom Brady -- broke the habit in 2003. "When I quit smoking I gained 15 pounds," <a href="http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20059627,00.html">she told People magazine in 2006</a>. "So? I prefer myself this way. Nothing is worth your health."




  • Ben Affleck


    For the actor, playing a chain smoker in Smokin' Aces was actually the impetus to give up the habit in real life. "The whole week that I shot, I smoked, like, five packs a day," <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20010769,00.html">he told People magazine in 2007</a>. "By the time the movie was over, I was so sick of smoking, I just didn't want to do it anymore, and I quit. I have this celluloid record of the last time I smoked."




  • Kelly Ripa


    The Co-Host of Live! With Michael and Kelly told Shape magazine that she used to be a "closet smoker," Everyday Health reports. And while she quit after having children, she picked the habit back up again. What helped her finally quit for good? Exercise, <a href="http://www.everydayhealth.com/stop-smoking-pictures/9-celebrities-that-successfully-quit-smoking.aspx#/slide-8">she said in the interview</a>.




  • Kristen Stewart


    In May 2012, the Twilight actress <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1686170/kristen-stewart-quits-smoking-learns-french.jhtml">revealed in an MTV interview</a> that she was learning French -- and that she had quit smoking! "You can't acknowledge it or else suddenly ... you can't think about it," she said shyly. And she's not the only Twilight starlet who's stubbed out her cigarettes -- co-stars Ashley Greene and Nikki Reed also reportedly stopped smoking, <a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/127306/which-new-moon-castmembers-are-trying-to-be-better-role-models">according to EOnline.com</a>.




  • Charlize Theron


    "I was highly addicted," <a href="http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/charlize-theron-breaking-away/#1">the actress told Vogue in 2011</a>. "I thought, I don’t smoke like normal people. I smoke to die." While Theron didn't tell Vogue exactly how she quit to avoid "jinxing" it, she reportedly tried both <a href="http://www.allaboutyou.com/health/health-advice/celebrity-ex-smokers-how-they-kicked-the-habit-46298?page=7">yoga</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/11/hypnosis-quit-smoking_n_1248444.html">hypnosis</a>.




  • Jon Hamm


    The Mad Man star is no stranger to smoking on screen -- but he quit smoking behind the scenes at the age of 24, <a href="http://www.people.com/people/jon_hamm/0,,,00.html">according to People.com.</a> "It's glamorous on film, but it's not glamorous waking up and smelling like an ashtray," he told the publication. So how does he handle playing his chain-smoking character, Don Draper? Herbal cigarettes. "They taste like a mixture between pot and soap," <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2008/09/jon_hamm_on.html">he once complained to New York magazine's Vulture.com</a>. "But we’re being realistic -- people did smoke back then. My father smoked everywhere, even in the car, in the summertime, with the windows up -- it was part of life," <a href="http://blog.chron.com/celebritybuzz/2012/03/jon-hamm-smoking-onscreen-is-debilitating/">he told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year</a>.




  • Katherine Heigl


    The actress <a href="http://www.parade.com/celebrity/celebrity-parade/2010/1004-katherine-heigl-life-as-we-know-it.html">told Parade in 2010</a> that she was quitting with the help of electronic cigarettes, a <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/safe-cigarettes/story?id=12789204#.UH6c_xYiFsc">controversial smoking cessation tool</a>. "I've been doing it for six months. Smoking sucks! The one thing I would say to my kid is, 'It's not just that it's bad for you,'" <a href="http://www.parade.com/celebrity/celebrity-parade/2010/1004-katherine-heigl-life-as-we-know-it.html">she told Parade</a>. "'Do you want to spend the rest of your life fighting a stupid addiction to a stupid thing that doesn't even really give you a good buzz?'" Heigl told David Letterman that she had previously unsuccessfully tried the gum, the patch and the prescription drug Chantix to quit, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/04/katherine-heigl-the-crazy_n_749616.html">HuffPost reported at the time</a>.