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By LISA GREENE, Times Staff WriterIn 365 days, there are 298 events marking various diseases. (Happy Diabetic Eye Disease Month!) Is it too much?
Happy GERD Awareness Week.
GERD, in case you weren't aware, is gastroesophageal reflux disease. Its key symptom is persistent heartburn, making Thanksgiving week the most appropriate time for Americans to truly understand its pain.
If GERD Awareness Week passed you by, it might be because you're still getting over last week's events. Nov. 15 was Prematurity Awareness Day, followed by Nov. 16, World COPD Day, and then the real biggie, Nov. 17: the Great American Smokeout.
Or maybe you're still observing other November events. This is, after all, the month to be more aware of lung and pancreatic cancers. And diabetes. Also diabetic eye disease, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, hospice care, healthy skin, pulmonary hypertension and temporomandibular joints.
One popular industry calendar lists 298 such events this year, from Reye's Syndrome Awareness Week to Head Lice Prevention Month. That's an increase from 2000, when there were only 253.
Every health-related charity or group, it seems, wants a day to call its own. Marketing professionals say designated disease days, weeks and months are a valuable way to raise money, promote awareness and give volunteers a focus to do more.
But at some point, even some of those who sponsor such events begin to wonder: How much is too much? Do Americans have time to spend each October being aware of lupus, their lungs and their livers?
"We're going to run out of days," said professor Carol Bryant, co-director of the Florida Prevention Research Center at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. "At what point does the list get so long you don't pay attention to it at all? . . . We're starting to compete with ourselves."
But even Bryant couldn't resist pointing out that this week included Nov. 21, Public Health Research Day.
Among those who sponsor such events, few seem to know where it all began.
"Somewhere, somebody, back in the mists of time," suggested Rick Wade, senior vice president of the American Hospital Association. An affiliate of the group has been publishing an annual events calendar for about 20 years.
Some of the biggest events have been going for decades. There have been more than 20 Breast Cancer Awareness Months. People began snuffing cigarettes for the Great American Smokeout in 1976. March of Dimes' WalkAmerica began in 1970.
The American Dental Association claims one of the oldest events, Children's Dental Health Week, which began in February 1941. It has since been upgraded to an entire month.
To public health advocates, the reason for such observances is clear. They get attention - attention to raise money or to encourage disease prevention, from quitting smoking to getting mammograms.
Health advocacy groups are often nonprofits and don't have the cash to compete for people's attention with companies that can fork over millions for memorable ads and cute jingles, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
"We're in a very media-intense environment," Benjamin said. "We don't have those kinds of dollars. If you want to get an antismoking message out, you've got to have something like the Great American Smokeout, or a walk. Those are one of the ways we try to stretch limited dollars."
So it doesn't bother Benjamin that National Public Health Week, which his group sponsors from April 3 to 9, shares time with Take the Stairs to Work Week, Health in the Americas Week, Patient Advocacy Week, National Alcohol Screening Day and Cancer Fatigue Awareness Day.
"Some get more attention than others," he said. "But there are multiple audiences. You're never going to get all 290-million Americans to pay attention to a particular issue on a given day. But (one event) may mean a lot to a particular community."
There is a certain rhyme and reason to the timing of some events. June is Fireworks Eye Safety Month and December is Safe Toys and Gifts Month. Valentine's Day gives an extra boost each February to American Heart Month, and it can't be coincidence that Feb. 14 also kicks off National Condom Week.
Others just appear. The March of Dimes started Prematurity Awareness Day each Nov. 15 just three years ago. Prostate cancer still gets just a week in the hospital calendar, but has been promoted to the entire month of September - right before October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month - in the federal government health calendar.
Did they feel slighted? "That's absolutely the view that many prostate cancer advocates had," said Wendi Klevan, managing director of communications strategy and planning for the American Cancer Society. "That we deserve a whole month, too."
The effectiveness of such weeks can be hard to measure. So many different groups are sporting pink ribbons for Breast Cancer Awareness Month that Klevan has no idea how much money is raised altogether, although some individual fundraisers have raised close to $100-million. Nor is there any way to know how many smokers stop puffing each November.
But advocates say such events do raise money and get attention. They also can be especially useful to bring focus to more local causes, such as state legislation, Benjamin said.
"It also gives you a time to rally the troops," Bryant said. "For World Breastfeeding Week, all the breastfeeding advocates can come together. I actually do think they serve a function."
Some of the bigger dates have taken on a life of their own. Breast Cancer Awareness Month, possibly the biggest, has several events, as well as commercial sponsors. About the only downside, Klevan said, is the risk that an observance can be so successful that it sucks away attention at other times of year.
"We're working to get that information out year-round," she said. "Women are not going to be diagnosed with breast cancer only in October. We would want a woman to start thinking about getting tested any time of year."
AWARE OF THESE?ONGOING
NOV. 20-26: GERD Awareness Week (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease)
ALL NOVEMBER: Diabetic Eye Disease Month, National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, American Diabetes Month, National Epilepsy Awareness Month, National Hospice Month, Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, Lung Cancer Awareness Month, National Adoption Month, National Healthy Skin Month, Jaw Joints (Temporomandibular Joints) Awareness Month, COPD Awareness Month, PH (Pulmonary Hypertension) Awareness Month, National Family Caregivers Month, Prematurity Awareness Month
NEXT MONTH
DEC. 1: World AIDS Day
DEC. 1-7: National Aplastic Anemia Awareness Week
DEC. 4-10: National Handwashing Awareness Week
ALL DECEMBER: National Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month, Safe Toys and Gifts Month
Source: National Health Information Center