Abstract
We aimed to rank the most common locations of pain among Google users globally and locally and analyze secular and seasonal trends in pain-related searches in the years 2004–2019. We used data generated by Google Trends (GT) to identify and analyze global interest in topics (n = 24) related to locations of pain and how these progressed over time. We analyzed secular trends and time series decomposition to identify seasonal variations. We also calculated the interest in all topics with reference to the relative search volume (RSV) of “Abdominal pain”. Google users were most commonly interested in “Headache” (1.30 [times more frequently than “Abdominal pain”]), “Abdominal pain” (1.00), and “Back pain” (0.84). “Headache” was the most frequent search term in n = 41 countries, while “Abdominal pain” was the most frequent term in n = 27 countries. The interest in all pain-related topics except “Dyspareunia” increased over time. The sharpest increase was observed for “Abdominal pain” (5.67 RSV/year), and “Toothache” (5.52 RSV/year). Most of the topics revealed seasonal variations. Among pain-related topics, “Headache,” “Abdominal pain,” and “Back pain” interested most Google users. GT is a novel tool that allows retrospective investigation of complaints among Internet users.
Highlights
Pain is the major reason why people visit a medical office [1]
Up to 60% of individuals may experience pain each month, regardless of age and sex [2], and 22% of primary care patients have been reported to suffer from chronic pain [3]
Google users most commonly searched for information associated with “Headache” (1.30), “Abdominal pain” (1.00), “Back pain” (0.84), “Sore throat” (0.46), and “Low back pain” (0.39) (Table 1)
Summary
Pain is the major reason why people visit a medical office [1]. Up to 60% of individuals may experience pain each month, regardless of age and sex [2], and 22% of primary care patients have been reported to suffer from chronic pain [3]. 5 billion people do not have access to the opioid analgesics required to treat severe pain [5,6], which underlines the epidemiology of untreated pain [7] In this context, access to the Internet has created new opportunities for patients seeking pain relief. Individuals with chronic conditions predominantly search for health-related information in comparison to people without health problems [8], and many patients with chronic pain administer self-care instead of seeking professional help. These individuals frequently rely solely on the advice of primary care providers, limiting the generation of related data in official health statistics. Public Health 2020, 17, 954; doi:10.3390/ijerph17030954 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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