FSU researcher leads major NIH-funded effort to raise awareness among young women about alcohol and breast cancer risk

Tallahassee, Florida – As Breast Cancer Awareness Month approaches in October, researchers are looking at an important problem that goes beyond screening and early detection. Many young women may know that alcohol can affect health, but far fewer appear to understand its connection to breast cancer.

Russell B. Clayton, a Distinguished and Endowed Provost McKenzie Professor in the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University, is working to address that gap. His research team is part of a newly funded $3.1 million, five-year National Institutes of Health project being conducted with researchers from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James and the UMass Chan Medical School.

The project will examine how social media can be used to communicate information about the relationship between alcohol consumption and breast cancer. Researchers will look at which types of messages attract attention, stay in people’s memories and may influence the way young women think about alcohol-related cancer risks.

The need for better communication is significant. Research from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has identified breast cancer as the leading source of alcohol-attributable cancer among women. At the same time, information from the National Cancer Institute indicates that fewer than one-third of young adult women are aware that alcohol is a risk factor for breast cancer.

That difference between what is known medically and what people know about the risk is one of the issues Clayton hopes to better understand.

Clayton believes there are several possible reasons for the awareness gap. Health campaigns about alcohol have traditionally emphasized dangers that are easier to recognize in everyday life, while cancer can seem like a more distant consequence.

“Traditional alcohol-related health messaging has largely focused on more immediate and familiar risks, such as drinking and driving, rather than the longer-term cancer risks associated with alcohol consumption,” Clayton explained. “The evidence for alcohol-focused cancer messaging is also less established than it is for tobacco.”

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The new research will therefore concentrate on how information about alcohol and breast cancer can be presented in ways that connect with younger audiences. Social media is a central part of that strategy because of its ability to reach large numbers of people and its importance in the daily lives of many young adults.

But the researchers are not simply interested in whether someone reads a message and later says they agree with it.

“We are interested not only in whether a message changes what people say they believe, but also in whether it captures and sustains attention, strengthens memory for the message and ultimately influences attitudes and behavioral intentions,” Clayton explained.

That approach means the team will examine several stages of the communication process. A message may contain accurate information, for example, but that does not necessarily mean people will notice it, remember it or think about changing their behavior because of it.

The research team is also involving young women in the development of the messages themselves. Rather than relying entirely on researchers to decide how information should be presented, members of the Ohio State team worked directly with young adult women to develop social media messages about the connection between alcohol and breast cancer.

Their input has already provided information about the platforms most relevant to the audience. Participants identified Instagram and TikTok as preferred social media platforms among young women.

Clayton said involving the intended audience in the process can help researchers avoid creating messages that may be scientifically accurate but fail to connect with the people they are meant to reach.

“Involving young women directly in the design process allows our team to develop messages that reflect how they actually think about alcohol, breast cancer risk and social media,” Clayton added. “Their input helps us develop messages that are relevant, credible and engaging to the audience we are trying to reach.”

The project will use several research methods to determine which messages work and why. Researchers plan to conduct nationally representative online self-report surveys before moving into laboratory experiments.

The laboratory portion will add another layer to the research by measuring participants’ physical and psychological responses to different messages. Among the tools being used are eye tracking, heart rate measurements and skin conductance.

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These methods can provide information that may not appear in a traditional survey. Someone might report that a message was interesting, for instance, but researchers can also examine where the person’s eyes were focused and whether the message produced measurable signs of attention or emotional engagement.

“Self-report questions typically ask people to report what they remember, what they felt or what they thought about a message after message exposure,” Clayton noted. “Measures such as eye tracking, heart rate and skin conductance give us another window into those responses and help us understand which parts of a message capture visual attention and generate cognitive or emotional engagement.”

The researchers hope that combining the survey results with laboratory measurements will give them a clearer picture of how different forms of health messaging affect audiences.

The goal is not simply to produce another collection of social media posts. Clayton and his colleagues want to identify specific communication strategies that can eventually be used to create more effective public health campaigns.

The five-year grant gives the team time to test different approaches, learn from the results and refine the messages based on what the research shows. The work could also help researchers better understand how young women receive and process information about alcohol-related cancer risks.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month provides a timely backdrop for the project, as organizations across the country prepare campaigns focused on prevention, screening and early detection. The FSU research adds another piece to that broader effort by examining how awareness of a specific risk factor can be improved.

The researchers ultimately want their findings to move beyond the laboratory and into real-world public health efforts. If certain messages prove more effective at attracting attention, improving understanding and influencing intentions, those approaches could potentially be developed into larger campaigns.

“We can then build on these findings by rigorously testing optimized messages on actual behavioral outcomes and developing strategies that could eventually be scaled to population-based and national campaigns aimed at reducing alcohol-related cancer risk,” Clayton said.

For Clayton and the research team, the central challenge is clear: medical evidence about alcohol and breast cancer exists, but that information does not automatically reach everyone who could benefit from knowing it. By studying how young women respond to health messages and involving them in the design process, the researchers hope to find better ways to close that awareness gap.