The study was led by Mark Dredze, PhD, a Johns Hopkins researcher who has also used online data to track the spread of flu cases, mental illness trends and other health topics.
Dr. Dredze and his colleagues were interested in seeing if the involvement of a celebrity like Mr. Sheen would raise public awareness and produce any public health benefit surrounding HIV. The researchers used Bloomberg Terminal and Google Trends to collect data on news reports mentioning HIV and Google searches originating from the United States on HIV, condoms, HIV symptomology and HIV testing. The data included extended as far back as 2004.
Here are seven findings from the study.
1. Nov. 17 — the day Mr. Sheen appeared on the TODAY Show — saw in increased of 265 percent in news reports mentioning HIV. Nearly all (97 percent) of those stories also mentioned Mr. Sheen.
2. Leading up to Nov. 17, HIV-related news reports had been facing a decline of historic proportions.
3. More than 6,500 stories were reported on Google News alone on the day of Mr. Sheen’s disclosure, placing the announcement among the top 1 percent of historic media events related to HIV.
4. The TODAY Show also correlated with the greatest number of HIV-related Google searches ever recorded in the United States on a single day.
5. Based on previous HIV-related Google search trends, Nov. 17 saw roughly 2.75 million more Google searches including the term HIV than expected. Additionally, there were 1.25 million more searches than expected for terms such as condoms, HIV symptoms or HIV testing.
6. In relative terms, all HIV searches were 417 percent higher than expected the day of Sheen’s disclosure. On Nov. 17, condom-related searches increased 75 percent, HIV symptom-related searches increased 540 percent and HIV testing-related searches increased 214 percent. The searches remained unusually high for three days following Mr. Sheen’s appearance on national television.
7. Mr. Sheen’s disclosure about his HIV-positive status differs from similar announcements from other celebrities, like former professional basketball player Magic Johnson, in part because smartphones have made information about HIV accessible within seconds, according to Dr. Dredze.
Mr. Sheen may be a controversial figure, given some well-publicized behavior that goes against public health science, but the researchers say his disclosure already produced tremendous public health benefits.
“Public health for more than three decades has delivered a consistent message about HIV: Get tested, know the signs and use condoms,” said John W. Ayers, a research professor at the San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health. “That message was so well-ingrained that when the public was presented with Sheen’s HIV-positive disclosure, they began seeking out public health salient information on HIV testing, the signs of HIV and condoms. It is an example of how decades of public health messaging can focus the population on life-saving action when the relevant behaviors become salient.”
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