PS-C35-7: THE TIME TREND OF INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR ABOUT SALT REDUCTION IN JAPAN

Abstract

Objective: When considering hypertension management, salt reduction is the most important lifestyle modification for cardiovascular prevention, especially in Japanese who still consume a significant amount of salt. For achieving a goal for salt reduction, the Japanese Society of Hypertension collaborated with stakeholders including business sectors and the government. However, the public awareness and interest about salt reduction has not been fully evaluated. In this study, by using Google trend, we retrospectively evaluated time trend of information seeking behavior about salt reduction in Japan. Design and method: We searched Google Trends for search terms relating to salt reduction. First, we searched “salt reduction” and filtered the top seven related searches to obtain relative search volumes (RSVs) for the period January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2021, in Japan. Correlation coefficient and regression coefficient were estimated to evaluate the time trend of seeking behavior about salt reduction. The contribution of related searches to the main search for “salt reduction” are also calculated in each month to evaluate the seasonal peak of the contribution to the “salt reduction”. Results: Both RSVs for salt reduction with ant without filtering top seven related searches significantly increased from 2004 to 2021 (13.8 ± 9.3 to 70.8 ± 10.9, r = 0.92, p-value < 0.001 and 8 ± 7.1 to 49.2 ± 3.5, r = 0.93, p-value < 0.01, respectively). Regression coefficients indicated that RSVs increased 0.0091 (95% CI, 0.0085–0.0097, p < 0.001) per year for salt reduction and 0.0065 (95% CI, 0.0061–0.0069, p < 0.001) per year for salt reduction filtered related searches (Figure A). Among related search results, search for “salt component”, “soy sauce” and “soy sauce” contributed to 9.9 ± 3.2%, 5.8 ± 2.0%, and 3.9 ± 5.5% of total RSVs for salt reduction. Of note, pickled plum explained all RSV for salt reduction in 18.0 ± 9.2% in June, which peaked in 41% in 2021 (Figure B). Conclusion: RSVs from Google trends apparently indicated increasing pattern of information seeking behaviors for salt reduction. Related searches might provide us insights when people search for salt reduction, which could be useful for future effective interventions for awareness of salt reduction.