Analyzing Public Interest in Osteoarthritis and Its Minimally Invasive Treatments: A Google Trends Analysis

Introduction In recent years, online search engines have become a source of information about medical issues. We aimed to evaluate the public's interest in osteoarthritis and minimally invasive treatments of osteoarthritis in the last 10 years using Google Trends (GT). Methods Interventional physiatrist analyzed 14 selected terms (joint pain, joint pain treatment, joint cartilage damage, narrowing of the joint, osteoarthrosis, osteoarthritis, intra-articular injection, intra-articular steroid, intra-articular hyaluronic acid, intra-articular plasma rich platelet (PRP), essential oil for joint pain, joint pain supplements, home remedies for joint pain, and stem cell for joint) related with osteoarthritis and minimally invasive treatments of osteoarthritis in physical medicine and rehabilitation discipline. All keywords were searched in the GT application using the 'all categories,' 'web search,' and 'worldwide' filters. The last 10 years have been divided into two equal parts, each spanning five years (from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017, and January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2022). Public interest in the 14 keywords mentioned above was recorded for these two periods, and the GT for all 14 keywords were compared across the two five-year periods. Results Searching rates for the terms 'joint pain,' 'joint pain treatment,' 'joint cartilage damage,' 'narrowing of the joint,' 'osteoarthritis,' 'intra-articular injection,' 'intra-articular PRP,' and 'joint pain supplements' have increased significantly in the last five years (p= 0.001, p= 0.001, p= 0.005, p= 0.001, p= 0.001, p= 0.004, p= 0.001, and p= 0.001, respectively). The average Google Trends (GT) score for all terms was 40 between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2017, and the average GT score for all terms was 48 between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2022 (p= 0.001). Conclusion The present study stated that public interest in osteoarthritis and minimally invasive treatments for osteoarthritis has increased significantly in the last five years. Study outcomes demonstrated that public attention to 'joint pain,' 'joint treatment,' 'joint cartilage damage,' 'narrowing of the joint,' 'osteoarthritis,' 'intra-articular injection,' 'intra-articular PRP,' and 'joint pain supplements' has also significantly increased in the last five years.