Keyword Trends for Mother–Child Oral Health in Korea Based on Social Media Big Data from Naver

OBJECTIVES: The present study examined trends in search keywords related to the oral health of infants and pregnant women using “social media cafés” on the Korean portal site, Naver. METHODS: We obtained data from January 2015 to December 2017, collected by searching for common terms related to oral health, such as “dental caries”, “oral health”, “scaling”, “tooth brushing”, and “oral examination”. Search results for these terms were organized by frequency and visualized by increase in the font size with increasing frequency. RESULTS: The ranking of keywords on Naver cafés for pregnant women and women with infants was as follows (in descending order): “oral examination”, “tooth filling”, and “tooth brushing”. The “oral health” network was linked to “dental caries”, “oral health education”, and “tooth brushing”. In addition, the analysis of trends of keyword frequencies according to time periods showed that “dental caries” and “oral examination” were of highest interest to the café users. CONCLUSIONS: We found a high interest in keywords related to preventive measures for the oral health of infants and children, but there was a lack of awareness regarding the oral health of pregnant women. These findings suggest that prevention in infants and pregnant women is necessary, and that public awareness regarding education about oral healthcare needs to be raised.