Google trends to identify public’s Interest in bowel cancer, A Web Based Analysis.

Abstract

Aims: Bowel Cancer is one of the commonest cancers in UK. Google Trends were used to evaluate public’s search interest regarding bowel cancer. We hypothesize that the search data in Google Trends may be influenced by “Bowel cancer awareness month” campaign and that in future this might be a useful surrogate to monitor the effectiveness of public health campaigns. Methods: Google Trends were used to extract data presented as “Relative search volume index”(SVI) ranging between 0 to 100. “Bowel Cancer” was used as a search term to collect the relevant data for the last 5 years ( January 2015 to December 2019), All the peaks were assessed and their correlation with bowel cancer awareness month was noted. Results: We noticed an upward trend for the searched term during the months of April for most of the years where peak of search touched 90%. It corresponds with bowel cancer awareness month campaign. A downward trend was also noticed during the months of December during all years where it went down to 53%. This may represent avoidance of health related searches during the happy holiday period. Conclusion: Our study shows an encouraging association between bowel cancer awareness month campaign and public’s search interest. Results can be used in future to start effective awareness strategies and leverage future interventions.