New online game teaches about HIV/AIDS and getting tested

New online game teaches about HIV/AIDS and getting tested

MTV's mtvU network is working the Kaiser Family Foundation and POZ Magazine for PosorNot.com, an online game about HIV/AIDS, getting tested, and using protection. Players confront their HIV stereotypes as they guess whether a profiled participant is positive or negative. The game stresses that the only way to really know your HIV status is by getting tested. Pos or Not also provides users with information about HIV prevention and local HIV and STD testing resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HealthMedia trying to raise awareness about insomnia

Health behavior change company HealthMedia is behind a new awareness
campaign about the prevalence of insomnia and its growing effect on
healthcare costs and productivity. The campaign includes a free Webinar,
communications to employers and health plans, collaboration with
nonprofit organizations, and a video, which can be viewed at
www.healthmedia.com.

The Webinar, taking place today, April 30, will
feature Todd Arendt, MD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and
neurology at the University of Michigan, and focuses on insomnia and
treatment options. HealthMedia's Overcoming Insomnia program uses
evidence-based techniques to help individuals recover from insomnia.
HealthMedia clients include Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline.

Wyeth supporting online brochure about women and depression

Now here's a brilliant ideal ... NOT.[fg]

A new online brochure supported by an educational grant from Wyeth aims
to highlight the prevalence of depression in women. Although Wyeth
supports the brochure, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which
produces it, is careful to point out that it doesn't endorse any
specific product or treatment. The 13-page brochure, available at
http://nami.org/womendepression , highlights symptoms and causes, as
well as data about women of color, life stages, and treatment. Other
sections deal with professional help, self-help, preventing recurrent
depression, and helping other women. The data reveal that one in eight
women experiences depression in their lifetime; twice the rate as men.
Also, middle-aged Hispanic women have the highest rate of depression
symptoms, followed by middle-aged African-American women.

Top 20 Health Conditions, and Top 15 Prescription Brands, Researched Online

Top 20 Health Conditions, and Top 15 Prescription Brands, Researched
Online

"Pregnancy" and "cancer" are the two most frequently searched health
conditions, at 8.8 million and 7.7 million search queries, respectively.

Smoking-cessation treatment Chantix topped the list of frequently
searched brand drugs, according to comScore.

Common health conditions such as diabetes, depression, and flu were in
the top 20 but generate fewer searches than cancer and pregnancy,
comScore found.

"A reason for this may be due to life-changing nature of a cancer
diagnosis or a pregnancy," said Carolina Petrini, comScore SVP. "When
facing a serious illness like cancer or after becoming pregnant or
considering pregnancy, consumers often turn to the internet to search
for information and educate themselves in a private setting."

CHART// Top 20 Most Commonly Searched Health Conditions:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-20-health-conditions-rese
arched-online-and-top-15-prescription-brands-4203/comscore-health-condit
ions-top-20-search-terms-feb-08jpg/

Conditions relating to relate to sexual or reproductive health (e.g.,
herpes, HIV, HPV, menopause and pregnancy) made up fully one-quarter of
the top 20 list, as individuals appreciate the anonymity of the internet
when searching for information about highly personal conditions.

Top 15 Searched Prescription Brands

People are likely to seek information about depression medication on the
internet, comScore found. One-third of the top 15 commonly searched
prescription brands are treatments for depression (Cymbalta, Effexor,
Lexapro, Prozac, and Paxil).

CHART// Top 15 Searched Prescription Brands:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-20-health-conditions-rese
arched-online-and-top-15-prescription-brands-4203/comscore-health-condit
ions-search-terms-top-15-prescription-brands-feb-08jpg/

In February 2008...

* Pfizer's Chantix, a smoking cessation treatment, generated
500,000 search queries.

* Adderall (an ADHD treatment) and Viagra (an
erectile-dysfunction treatment) followed closely behind at No. 2 and No.
3, respectively.

* The twentieth-highest search term was Pfizer's Lyrica (a
treatment for Fibromyalgia) due to its recent approval and subsequent
brand marketing, which helped to raise awareness of the condition.

There is little or no correlation between a condition's prevalence and
its search popularity, comScore noted:

* People in the US who have diabetes outnumber those who have
cancer by several million*, yet there were just 1.8 million search
queries for "diabetes" - four times less than the number of searches for
"cancer."

* Approximately four million women a year give birth in the US,
as reported by the American Pregnancy Association, but ten times that
number (40 million) suffer from high cholesterol, as reported by the
American Heart Association. "Cholesterol," however, garnered less than
one million searches, far less than "pregnancy."

*According to data from the American Diabetes Association and the
National Institute of Health.