Assessing Public Interest in Alternative Ocular Therapies: A Google Trends Analysis (Preprint)

Abstract

Google Trends is an online tool that can be utilized as a proxy for public interest in a topic. As such, Trends data can be employed to understand public interest in alternative ocular therapies.

The objective of our study is to assess public interest in three alternative therapies and preventative treatments (platelet rich plasma (PRP), collagen, and vegan diet) for ocular pathologies.

Google Trends aggregate monthly scores were collected across a 10-year period between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2021 for ‘layman’ search terms related to ophthalmology in combination with the respective alternative therapies: PRP, collagen, and vegan diet. Each of the monthly scores were added for the respective search terms and represented as an aggregate annual score. Aggregate annual scores were then added together for related search terms. The score in 2012 was set to zero to establish a baseline and subsequent aggregate annual scores were adjusted to the baseline in order to perform regression analysis. Linear, quadratic, and exponential regressions were applied to the data for each set of related search terms to identify the model of best fit. Data was collected in Microsoft Excel and analyzed in R.

Google Trends aggregate annual score increase was most notable for vegan diet with an increase of 1,376 over a 10-year period. Increases in searches for PRP and vegan diet were also marked with an aggregate annual score increase of 773 and 1,006 respectively over a 10-year period. For regression analysis, PRP showed the most prominent trend with a quadratic model (R2= 0.938, P=.006), while vegan diet (R2=0.863, p < .001) and collagen (R2= 0.939, p < .001) displayed strong growing linear trends.

These results demonstrate rapidly growing public interest in three alternative therapies for ocular health and ocular disease treatment and prevention. This rise in public interest indicates ongoing need for better-defined evidence-based clinical recommendations in the alternative ocular therapy space.