Public awareness about reconstructive breast surgery increased following actress Angelina Jolie's decision to undergo a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction in 2013, a new study has found.

Ms Jolie made the decision after discovering she carried a faulty version of the BRCA1 gene mutation, which increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer.

The actress went public with her decision by writing an article for the New Youk Times, which generated huge media interest worldwide. She revealed that doctors had estimated that she had an 87% increased risk of developing breast cancer and a 50% increased risk of developing cancer of the ovaries because of the faulty gene.

Earlier this year, she also had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. Ms Jolie's mother died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56.

Researchers in Austria set out to determine whether the media coverage surrounding her double mastectomy in 2013 had any effect on public awareness. They carried out two polls, each involving 1,000 women. One poll was carried out before Ms Jolie's announcement and one was held after.

The study found that 88% of women were aware that reconstructive breast surgery is possible after mastectomy prior to Ms Jolie's announcement, but after, this climbed to almost 93%.

Meanwhile, the proportion of women who knew that breast reconstruction can be achieved with the use of the woman's own tissue increased from 57% to almost 69%.

The proportion of women who knew that breast reconstruction can be carried out during the breast removal operation jumped from 40% to almost 60%.

One in five of the women in the second poll also said that Ms Jolie's announcement had made them ‘deal more intensively with the topic of breast cancer'.

"This is the first prospective report to prove the media's effect on the healthcare-related issue of breast cancer among the general public, which was based on a serendipitous design - the initial poll on breast reconstruction was conducted a month before Ms Jolie's announcement, triggering a timely repetition thereafter in a second poll.

"Since individual choice will become a driving force for patient-centered decision making in the future, cancer specialists should be aware of public opinion when consulting patients with breast cancer," commented the researchers from the Medical University of Graz.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, CANCER.