Google Search Trends in Oncology and the Impact of Celebrity Cancer Awareness

Abstract

IntroductionThere is widespread public interest when celebrities are diagnosed with cancer. We sought to assess how this interest impacts awareness of prevalent cancers.MethodsWe reviewed common cancer-related search terms using Google Trends (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA) between the years 2004 and 2017 and retrospectively correlated these findings with media or celebrity-related events. The Google Trends application was used to obtain the “search volume index” (SVI), defined as the number of searches for a specific term standardized to the total number of searches over that time period. Data were presented in a graphical format. Isolated peaks of greater than 25% from the baseline SVI were identified. Using the date of the peaks, a further search was performed to determine if any event in the media triggered the peak.Results“Lung Cancer,” “Pancreas Cancer,” “Endometrial Cancer,” “Cervical Cancer,” “Brain Cancer,” and “Glioblastoma” each had the highest peak correspond with a celebrity-related event covered in the media. These search terms displayed several additional isolated peaks, the majority of which could all be correlated with a significant media event (%). The search term “Breast Cancer” consistently had a peaked interest during October (breast cancer awareness month). Breast cancer events relating to public figures had little to no relative impact on search volume during this period. None of the other cancer search terms displayed the same cyclical pattern during their respective awareness months. Colon, rectal, and prostate cancer demonstrated stable search volumes over time, without an isolated peak.ConclusionInternet search activity among English speakers of most general cancer terms exhibit peaks coinciding with events that occur to celebrity figures or advances in medicines that are substantially covered in the media. In all cases but “breast cancer,” these events lend to higher search activity as compared to campaigns and awareness months. Our study suggests that media coverage of public figures with cancer may trigger substantial Internet interest in non-breast cancers, more so than traditional efforts to raise awareness.

The impact of monthly campaigns and other high-profile media coverage on public interest in 13 malignancies: a Google Trends analysis

“…Our results align with previous research that describes a comparable increase in Google search traffic related to breast cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness Month [ 7 , 23 ]. However, our findings indicate that monthly awareness campaigns for [‘Cervical Cancer’], [‘Colorectal Cancer’], [‘Skin Cancer’], [‘Ovarian Cancer’] and [‘Lung Cancer’] have also successfully increased Google search traffic, which is contrary to a previous report that found little evidence to support the effectiveness of non-breast cancer monthly awareness campaigns [ 24 ]. In contrast to the methods used in the referenced paper, our study used statistical analyses such as two-sample independent t -tests to compare GT data in awareness months versus non-awareness months, while the previous study solely identified sharp peaks in RSV from baseline and did not use any statistical tests to evaluate the relationship between monthly cancer awareness campaigns and corresponding GT search traffic.…”

COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy linked to increased internet search queries for side effects on fertility potential in the initial rollout phase following Emergency Use Authorization

“…The five search terms with the most interest during our established time period were identified as ‘COVID Vaccine Fertility’, ‘COVID Vaccine and Infertility’, ‘COVID Vaccine Infertility’, ‘COVID Vaccine Fertility CDC’, and ‘COVID 19 Vaccine Infertility’. Interest for a given keyword was reported as Search Volume Index (SVI) calculated as the proportion of keyword searches divided by all searches in a given location and time period (Kaleem et al., 2019 ). SVI may range from 0 to 100, with 100 representing the maximum search interest at that time and location selected for a given keyword.…”

Using Infodemiology Metrics to Assess Public Interest in Liver Transplantation: Google Trends Analysis

“…Goggle Trends and the field of infodemiology are being widely used in the field of health-related issues as well. Public attention in different fields of health care has been published recently (eg, osteoarthritis, breast cancer, or chronic inflammatory lung disease) [ 34 , 56 , 57 ]. Furthermore, infodemiology and Google Trends are used to generate awareness profiles and are suitable substitutes for classical data collection, such as surveys [ 50 ].…”