Association of nationwide insurance data and Google Trends for seasonality of gout in South Korea

Abstract

Aim of the workTo assess whether there is seasonality in the internet search volume related to gout and whether this reflects the seasonal variation of the actual number of gout cases in South Korea according to the nationwide insurance data. Patients and MethodsThe number of gout cases was obtained from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) in South Korea between January 2015 and December 2019. Internet search query data for the search terms “gout” and “uric acid” were obtained from a publicly available search engine database, Google Trends, during the same period. The cosinor analysis was conducted to assess a potential seasonality in the number of gout cases and gout-related search volumes (RSV) in Google Trends. ResultsThere was a significant seasonality in the number of gout cases and RSV for the search terms “gout” and “uric acid”. For both analyses, summer was the peak season, and winter was the trough season. The month with the most gout cases was July with February having the least number of cases. The RSV of the terms “gout” (r = 0.47; p < 0.001) and “uric acid” (r = 0.56; p < 0.001) significantly correlated with the number of gout cases. ConclusionThe number of gout cases and internet search data related to gout showed seasonality with a peak in the summer months in South Korea. Google Trends data for seasonality of gout were correlated with the nationwide insurance data. Internet search data has the potential to act as complementary tool for investigating and monitoring gout.