Tobacco cessation news: Does the media report on what works for women?

On any given day an average of 50 million Americans turn to the Internet for their news, and the number continues to increase (Pew Internet & American Life Project: Online News, 2006). With more Americans turning to the Internet for news and 65 percent of women reporting using the Internet to search for medical information for themselves (NCI HINTS, 2005), the information they receive from news reports may affect their health care decisions. As tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death (CDC, 2007), and a meta-analysis of tobacco cessation research studies in women found a number of significant differences between women and men (Perkins, 2001), this presentation identifies major Internet news reports focusing on tobacco cessation and analyzes if and how they describe sex and gender differences in tobacco cessation, with a focus on differences that may affect women's quitting success. The study utilizes the Google News search engine and a list of the 30 most popular Internet news sources to identify articles published in 2007 that focus on smoking cessation. Articles are analyzed by level of sex and gender differences mentioned (i.e., no mention of sex and gender differences, mere mention of men and women, one sex and gender difference cited, multiple sex and gender differences cited) and the types of sex and gender differences reported (i.e., implications of pregnancy, implications of the menstrual cycle, differences in effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy, differences in quitting rates).