Public health implications of Google searches for sunscreen, sunburn, skin cancer, and melanoma in the United States

Abstract

Purpose Google Trends (GT) offers insights into public interests and behaviors and holds potential for guiding public health campaigns. We evaluated trends in US searches for and and their relationships with outcomes. Design Google Trends was queried for US search volumes from 2004 to 2017. Time-matched search term data were correlated with outcomes data from Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Program and United States Cancer Statistics databases (2004-2014 and 2010-2014, respectively). Setting Users of the Google search engine in the United States. Participants Google search engine users in the United States. This represents approximately 65% of the population. Measures Search volumes, outcomes. Analysis Pearson correlations between search term volumes, time, and national outcomes. Spearman correlations between state-level search data and outcomes. Results The terms sunscreen, sunburn, skin cancer, and melanoma were all highly correlated ( P Conclusions We conclude that online cancer prevention campaigns should focus on the search terms sunburn and sunscreen, given the decreasing online searches for cancer and melanoma. This is reinforced by the finding that sunscreen searches are higher in areas with higher incidence.