Jeff Niederdeppe1, Rosemary J Avery2, Jiawei Liu3, Sarah E Gollust4, Laura Baum5, Colleen L Barry6, Brendan Welch2, Emmett Tabor2, Nathaniel W Lee2, Erika Franklin Fowler5. 1. Department of Communication, 476 Mann Library Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA. Electronic address: jdn56@cornell.edu. 2. Department of Policy Analysis and Management, 2303 Martha Van Rensselear Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA. 3. Department of Communication, 476 Mann Library Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA. 4. Division of Health Policy and Management, 420 Delaware Street SE, MMC 729, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA. 5. Wesleyan Media Project and Department of Government, 238 Church St, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 06459, USA. 6. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 Broadway, Hampton House 482, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA; Johns Hopkins Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy Research, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Abstract
CONTEXT: Prior research suggests the potential for political campaign advertisements to increase psychological distress among viewers. The current study tests relationships between estimated exposure to campaign advertising and the odds of respondents reporting that a doctor told them they have anxiety, depression, insomnia, or (as a negative control) cancer. METHODS: A secondary analysis of U.S. data on televised campaign ad airings from January 2015 to November 2016 (n = 4,659,038 airings) and five waves of a mail survey on television viewing patterns and self-reported medical conditions from November 2015 to March 2017 (n = 28,199 respondents from n = 16,204 unique households in the U.S.). FINDINGS: A 1 percent increase in the estimated volume of campaign advertising exposure was associated with a 0.06 [95% CI 0.03-0.09] percentage point increase in the odds of a respondent being told by a doctor that they have anxiety in the past 12 months. We observed this association regardless of the political party of the ad sponsor, the political party of the respondent, or their statistical interaction. We also observed this association for both Presidential campaign ads and non-Presidential (including local, state, and U.S. congressional election) campaign ads, providing evidence that these relationships were not driven by the unique divisiveness of the race between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Some topic-specific models offered additional evidence of association between estimated volume of campaign advertising exposure and the odds of being told by a doctor that they have depression or insomnia, but these patterns were less consistent across models that utilized different categories of campaign exposure. Campaign ad exposure was not associated with cancer, which served as a negative control comparison. CONCLUSIONS: There was a consistent positive association between the volume of campaign advertising exposure and a reported diagnosis of anxiety among American adults.
CONTEXT: Prior research suggests the potential for political campaign advertisements to increase psychological distress among viewers. The current study tests relationships between estimated exposure to campaign advertising and the odds of respondents reporting that a doctor told them they have anxiety, depression, insomnia, or (as a negative control) cancer. METHODS: A secondary analysis of U.S. data on televised campaign ad airings from January 2015 to November 2016 (n = 4,659,038 airings) and five waves of a mail survey on television viewing patterns and self-reported medical conditions from November 2015 to March 2017 (n = 28,199 respondents from n = 16,204 unique households in the U.S.). FINDINGS: A 1 percent increase in the estimated volume of campaign advertising exposure was associated with a 0.06 [95% CI 0.03-0.09] percentage point increase in the odds of a respondent being told by a doctor that they have anxiety in the past 12 months. We observed this association regardless of the political party of the ad sponsor, the political party of the respondent, or their statistical interaction. We also observed this association for both Presidential campaign ads and non-Presidential (including local, state, and U.S. congressional election) campaign ads, providing evidence that these relationships were not driven by the unique divisiveness of the race between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. Some topic-specific models offered additional evidence of association between estimated volume of campaign advertising exposure and the odds of being told by a doctor that they have depression or insomnia, but these patterns were less consistent across models that utilized different categories of campaign exposure. Campaign ad exposure was not associated with cancer, which served as a negative control comparison. CONCLUSIONS: There was a consistent positive association between the volume of campaign advertising exposure and a reported diagnosis of anxiety among American adults.