A - 60 How a Celebrity's Disclosures of Aphasia and Dementia Impacted Online Searches Regarding Dementia Screening, Prevention, and Treatment: a Big Data Analysis.

Abstract

Celebrity disclosure of medical conditions may lead to online searches into prevention and treatment. There are no studies examining this effect on dementia screening, prevention, and treatment and, if so, the effects' length. Bruce Willis announced diagnoses of aphasia on 3/30/2022 and frontotemporal dementia on 2/16/2023. U.S. Google search trends (GT) from 3/1/2022-3/1/2023 were accessed for: Bruce Willis, aphasia, and dementia. Wikipedia Pageviews (WP) for 1-week before, week of, and 1-week after each announcement were accessed for: dementia, aphasia; neuropsychological test, neuroimaging; dementia prevention, brain training, nootropics; donepezil, galantamine, and rivastigmine. ANOVAs and Tukey post-hocs were conducted of WP data. Visual inspection of GT suggested announcement-related pulse effects. Relative search volume (RSV) for aphasia = 100 the week of 3/27/2022, and spiked for dementia the week of 2/12/2023, with RSV = 19, 3x the previous week. Week of 3/30/2022, ANOVAs revealed a significant increase for aphasia (p = 0.050) and a trend toward significance for dementia (p = 0.086) searches; there was a trend for neuroimaging (p = 0.083) the following week. Aphasia searches dropped 1-week after, but remained 9x higher than pre-announcement. Week of 2/16/2023, there were significant increases in searches for dementia (p = 0.030), aphasia (p = 0.036), and prevention of dementia (p = 0.028), but no other screening or treatments. Each returned to pre-announcement levels 1-week after, according to post-hoc trends. Willis's announcements prompted searches for dementia and prevention in general, but not specific screening, treatment, or prevention. The effect was short-lived, as has been seen regarding cancer. For more influential public impact, media could report information including screening and prevention.