National Cancer Societies and their public statements on alcohol consumption and cancer risk.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Cross-sectional content analysis of organizational websites without human clinical or epidemiological outcome data
PubMed 29696713 · doi:10.1111/add.14254
What was done
The authors searched and analyzed the public websites of six national cancer societies in English-speaking OECD countries (Cancer Council Australia, Canadian Cancer Society, Irish Cancer Society, Cancer Society New Zealand, Cancer Research UK, and the American Cancer Society) in March 2017. A categorical coding system was used to qualitatively evaluate statements on alcohol-related cancer risks, consumption recommendations, carcinogen classification, low-dose risk, threshold effects, and alcohol tax advocacy relative to tobacco tax advocacy.
What was found
The abstract reports qualitative comparisons across the six organizations without numerical statistics: - Four organizations (Cancer Council Australia, Irish Cancer Society, Cancer Society New Zealand, and Cancer Research UK) stated on their websites that alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen, that low-level consumption increases cancer risk, and that there is no safe threshold for cancer risk. - The American Cancer Society and Canadian Cancer Society websites did not state that alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen, that it causes cancer at low doses, or that no safe threshold exists. - The American Cancer Society supported tobacco tax increases through its cancer action network, but did not advocate for increased alcohol taxes.
Why it matters
This study highlights discrepancies in how prominent cancer societies communicate established alcohol carcinogenicity and evidence-based tax policies to the public.
Limits
The study is limited to six English-speaking OECD organizations evaluated at a single time point (March 2017). It examined only public website content and did not evaluate other media channels, internal organizational policy, or the impact of messaging on public comprehension.
Cited by
- supports Alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer and is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen.