Disease Awareness Months Work, Even If You Don't Wear The Ribbon

June ​is the month for more than 10 disease-related awareness campaigns, including Myasthenia Gravis Awareness Month, National Congenital Cytomegalovirus Awareness Month and National Scleroderma Awareness Month. It also hosts a handful of awareness weeks and days, ranging from Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week to World Sickle Cell Day. June’s awareness list is shorter than most, but every month is full of diseases and disorders to take note of. You probably haven’t heard of half of them, and you’re not alone. So what’s the point of an awareness day, week or month? To understand the challenges of catching public attention, consider National Autism Awareness Month (that’s April), which began in the 1970s as a nationwide campaign led by the National Autism Society. Congress made it official in 1984, and the adoption of an autism awareness ribbon in 1999 helped increase its visibility. In 2007, Autism Speaks created World Autism Awareness Day (April 2) and the “Light It Up Blue” campaign to formally kick off Autism Awareness Month. The latter organization has also devoted substantial resources to its awareness campaigns. Yet a recent survey commissioned by the developmental toy manufacturer Leka suggests that Autism Awareness Month has had surprisingly little effect. Nearly half of Americans (46 percent) have no idea that April is Autism Awareness Month. Only 12 percent of adults surveyed said that the month-long obs...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news