GOOGLE TRENDS AND QUERIES FOR CHRONIC RESPIRATORY DISEASES – A NEW TOOL FOR PHYSICIANS TREATING RESPIRATORY DISEASES.

Abstract

Respiratory diseases (both acute and chronic) are among the leading of disease burden and mortality. To build further on the research, it is necessary to understand the population trends and health-seeking behavior about respiratory diseases. We aimed to evaluate real-life population trends for respiratory diseases, air pollution, and common drugs used to treat asthma/COPD. We also aimed to compare the trends of chronic respiratory diseases with other noncommunicable diseases prevalent in India. One method to evaluate this behavior is analyzing internet search queries. Google indexes the internet queries with every search performed and makes this information available to the public through Google Trends. Google Trends provides Normalized search volumes for selected terms over specific time ranges and geographic regions, and we evaluated the same for queries in India. IBM-SPSS v26 and Cosinor model of R 3.6.3 were used for data analysis and assessment of seasonality respectively. The search volumes for Asthma and COPD were relatively lower than those of diabetes, hypertension, and depression. The search volumes for asthma/COPD and pneumonia showed considerable seasonality. Consistent with the seasonality in asthma and COPD, common drug combinations for treatment of asthma/COPD showed seasonal variation as well. The search volumes for Salbutamol were quite higher as compared to ICS-LABA combinations. One of the reasons for seasonal variation for respiratory diseases in India might be Air pollution, which demonstrated a spike in November every year. The peak month of searches corresponded to the winter season in India. Conclusions:Consistent with real-life observations, Google trends for queries related to chronic respiratory diseases show seasonal variation in India. Targeted interventions, awareness programs, and SEO during the phase month(peak month) can help in increasing awareness of chronic respiratory diseases in India.