Trend Analysis of Global Web Searches (2004–2022) on Oral Cancer and Its Major Risk Factors

Abstract

Background Oral cancer is the 15th leading cause of mortality globally. The Internet is an online source of information pertaining to oral cancer and its major risk factors. This study aims to analyze the trend of global online interest on oral cancer and its major risk factors through an analysis of web searches of oral cancer. Materials and Methods This study analyzed the web searches conducted, from 2004 to January 2022, on oral cancer and its major risk factors (tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, and human papillomavirus [HPV] infection) using data obtained from Google Trends. Results Within the time frame under study, oral cancer had multiple peak search periods, with the highest relative search volume index (SVI) for a period being 1; the peak search period for alcohol was March 2020 (SVI = 100); the peak search periods for tobacco were March to April 2004 (SVI = 17); and the peak search period of HPV was April 2004 (SVI = 1). Globally, alcohol was the most common searched term among these four terms (oral cancer, alcohol, tobacco, and HPV) except in Turkey where tobacco was the most common (55%) searched term. The top 25 search queries for oral cancer, HPV, tobacco, and alcohol had SVI ranges of 22 to 100, 12 to 100, 28 to 100, and 18 to 100, respectively. From these search queries, it was observed that people have interest in oral cancer symptomatology, and the adverse effects of tobacco, alcohol, and HPV. Conclusion This study revealed an overall decline in the online interest on oral cancer and its major risk factors on a global scale.

Infoveillance and bibliometric analysis of COVID‐19 in Nigeria

“…This study adopted the use of infoveillance and bibliometric review approaches. These two approaches have been used extensively in the literature [9][10][11][12].…”

“…The SCOPUS research database was solely used for the bibliometric analysis part of this study because the database is the largest, oldest and most comprehensive research database in the world [12,13]. Another justification for the sole use of SCOPUS was that the utilisation of multiple databases often limits the opportunity to perform a rich bibliometric analysis due to the difficulty in synchronising bibliometric data obtained from multiple databases [13].…”

“…The infoveillance approach used was Google Trends database, whereas the SCOPUS database was used for the bibliometric analysis. These two databases have been extensively used in the literature [10][11][12][13][14][15].…”