TY - CHAP
T1 - World research and European news-media reports of cancer risk factors
T2 - 18th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics Conference, ISSI 2021
AU - Pallari, Elena
AU - Lewison, Grant
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to the many research assistants and volunteers who worked to analyse the European newspaper stories at King's College London. This project was led and managed by EP, now at University College London, and was supported by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (grant no. EC/FP7/602536).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 18th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, ISSI 2021. All rights reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Cancer is now one of the leading components of the global burden of disease. Causes of cancer that are amenable to intervention are multiple: tobacco control closely followed by obesity treatment, including promotion of a healthy diet and physical exercise, remain the global priorities. We interrogated the Web of Science (WoS) from 2001 to 2020 to determine the numbers of papers describing research into 14 different possible risk factors causing cancer. These ranged in relative importance from tobacco to the consumption of excessively hot drinks (linked to oesophageal cancer), pollution (linked to lung cancer particularly) and also non-interventional genetic risks; how they had varied in time, and between different continental regions. Because many of these factors are subject to human behavioural choices, we also investigated how such research was being presented to the European public through newspaper reportage. About half of the factors that influence cancer incidence can be attributed to particular causes. They are led by tobacco use, but this is slowly declining in most high-income settings. Research outputs on some of these different factors in the continental regions correlated positively with their influence on the cancer burden. However, the selection of European newspaper stories was biased towards those risk factors that could be considered as being under the control of their readers. The multifactorial causes of cancers vary by country, but within-country differences are also observed in the research output. Reports of research in the mass media may have a role in the control of cancer.
AB - Cancer is now one of the leading components of the global burden of disease. Causes of cancer that are amenable to intervention are multiple: tobacco control closely followed by obesity treatment, including promotion of a healthy diet and physical exercise, remain the global priorities. We interrogated the Web of Science (WoS) from 2001 to 2020 to determine the numbers of papers describing research into 14 different possible risk factors causing cancer. These ranged in relative importance from tobacco to the consumption of excessively hot drinks (linked to oesophageal cancer), pollution (linked to lung cancer particularly) and also non-interventional genetic risks; how they had varied in time, and between different continental regions. Because many of these factors are subject to human behavioural choices, we also investigated how such research was being presented to the European public through newspaper reportage. About half of the factors that influence cancer incidence can be attributed to particular causes. They are led by tobacco use, but this is slowly declining in most high-income settings. Research outputs on some of these different factors in the continental regions correlated positively with their influence on the cancer burden. However, the selection of European newspaper stories was biased towards those risk factors that could be considered as being under the control of their readers. The multifactorial causes of cancers vary by country, but within-country differences are also observed in the research output. Reports of research in the mass media may have a role in the control of cancer.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112624026&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference paper
AN - SCOPUS:85112624026
T3 - 18th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, ISSI 2021
SP - 871
EP - 882
BT - 18th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, ISSI 2021
A2 - Glanzel, Wolfgang
A2 - Heeffer, Sarah
A2 - Chi, Pei-Shan
A2 - Rousseau, Ronald
PB - International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics
Y2 - 12 July 2021 through 15 July 2021
ER -
