What Do Germans Want to Know About Skin Cancer? A Nationwide Google Search Analysis From 2013 to 2017

BACKGROUND: Experts worldwide agree that skin cancer is a global health issue, but only a few studies have reported on world populations’ interest in skin cancer. Internet search data can reflect the interest of a population in different topics and thereby identify what the population wants to know. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to assess the interest of the German population in nonmelanoma skin cancer and melanoma. METHODS: Google AdWords Keyword Planner was used to identify search terms related to nonmelanoma skin cancer and melanoma in Germany from November 2013 to October 2017. The identified search terms were assessed descriptively using SPSS version 24.0. In addition, the search terms were qualitatively categorized. RESULTS: A total of 646 skin cancer-related search terms were identified with 19,849,230 Google searches in the period under review. The search terms with the highest search volume were “skin cancer” (n=2,388,500, 12.03%), “white skin cancer” (n=2,056,900, 10.36%), “basalioma” (n=907,000, 4.57%), and “melanoma” (n=717,800, 3.62%). The most searched localizations of nonmelanoma skin cancer were “nose” (n=93,370, 38.99%) and “face” (n=53,270, 22.24%), and the most searched of melanoma were “nails” (n=46,270, 70.61%) and “eye” (n=10,480, 15.99%). The skin cancer‒related category with the highest search volume was “forms of skin cancer” (n=10,162,540, 23.28%) followed by “skin alterations” (n=4,962,020, 11.36%). CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides insight into terms and fields of interest related to skin cancer relevant to the German population. Furthermore, temporal trends and courses are shown. This information could aid in the development and implementation of effective and sustainable awareness campaigns by developing information sources targeted to the population’s broad interest or by implementing new Internet campaigns.