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‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019

The Internet is a common source of health information as search engines propose websites that should answer users’ queries. The study aimed to investigate the search behavior of Google users related to skin clinical signs as well as to analyze their geographical, secular, and seasonal patterns. The...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kamiński, Mikołaj, Tizek, Linda, Zink, Alexander
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33806391
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052541
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author Kamiński, Mikołaj
Tizek, Linda
Zink, Alexander
author_facet Kamiński, Mikołaj
Tizek, Linda
Zink, Alexander
author_sort Kamiński, Mikołaj
collection PubMed
description The Internet is a common source of health information as search engines propose websites that should answer users’ queries. The study aimed to investigate the search behavior of Google users related to skin clinical signs as well as to analyze their geographical, secular, and seasonal patterns. The data of Google Trends was used to analyze the number of Google searches related to skin problems from January 2004 to December 2019. Thirty-four topics representing dermatologic complaints were identified. The interests of all topics were calculated in proportion to the Relative Search Volume (RSV) of ‘Scar’. Geographical patterns as well as secular and seasonal trends were analyzed. Countries with few users who searched for skin problems were excluded from the analysis. Globally, gaining the most attention were ‘Itch’ proportion to RSV of ‘Itch’ (2.21), ‘Hair loss’ (1.56), ‘Skin rash’ (1.38), ‘Perspiration’ (1.32), and ‘Scar’ (1.00). In 42 of the 65 analyzed countries, ‘Itch’ was the most popular topic, followed by ‘Hair loss’ (n = 7), and ‘Pustule’ (n = 6). The RSV of all topics increases over time, with ‘Comedo’ (5.15 RSV/year), ‘Itch’ (4.83 RSV/year), and ‘Dandruff’ (4.66 RSV/year) being the most dynamic ones. For 23 topics, the highest interest was noted during warm months. Considering skin manifestations, Google users are mainly interested in itch, hair loss, and skin rash. An increasing number of individuals worldwide seem to use Google as a source of health information for dermatological clinical signs during the study period.
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spelling pubmed-79674012021-03-18 ‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019 Kamiński, Mikołaj Tizek, Linda Zink, Alexander Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The Internet is a common source of health information as search engines propose websites that should answer users’ queries. The study aimed to investigate the search behavior of Google users related to skin clinical signs as well as to analyze their geographical, secular, and seasonal patterns. The data of Google Trends was used to analyze the number of Google searches related to skin problems from January 2004 to December 2019. Thirty-four topics representing dermatologic complaints were identified. The interests of all topics were calculated in proportion to the Relative Search Volume (RSV) of ‘Scar’. Geographical patterns as well as secular and seasonal trends were analyzed. Countries with few users who searched for skin problems were excluded from the analysis. Globally, gaining the most attention were ‘Itch’ proportion to RSV of ‘Itch’ (2.21), ‘Hair loss’ (1.56), ‘Skin rash’ (1.38), ‘Perspiration’ (1.32), and ‘Scar’ (1.00). In 42 of the 65 analyzed countries, ‘Itch’ was the most popular topic, followed by ‘Hair loss’ (n = 7), and ‘Pustule’ (n = 6). The RSV of all topics increases over time, with ‘Comedo’ (5.15 RSV/year), ‘Itch’ (4.83 RSV/year), and ‘Dandruff’ (4.66 RSV/year) being the most dynamic ones. For 23 topics, the highest interest was noted during warm months. Considering skin manifestations, Google users are mainly interested in itch, hair loss, and skin rash. An increasing number of individuals worldwide seem to use Google as a source of health information for dermatological clinical signs during the study period. MDPI 2021-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7967401/ /pubmed/33806391 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052541 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kamiński, Mikołaj
Tizek, Linda
Zink, Alexander
‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019
title ‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019
title_full ‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019
title_fullStr ‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019
title_full_unstemmed ‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019
title_short ‘Dr. Google, What Is That on My Skin?’—Internet Searches Related to Skin Problems: Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2019
title_sort ‘dr. google, what is that on my skin?’—internet searches related to skin problems: google trends data from 2004 to 2019
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33806391
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052541
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