SUN-113 Evaluating Awareness of Kidney Disease Using Google Trends

Abstract

Kidney disease is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Important aspect of reducing kidney health burden entails awareness about kidney disease, for early detection and management. Various organizations around the world have developed campaigns to increase awareness. The aim of our study was to find out public awareness about kidney disease using Google Trends. Using Google Trends, a public web facility of Google Inc., we evaluated relative frequency of search of terms ‘kidney disease’, ‘chronic kidney disease ‘and ‘kidney failure’ in various combination to obtain highest yield search volume between 1st January 2004 and 1st October 2019 (n=190 months). The program assigns a reference value of 100 for the point of maximum popularity among the search terms, and provides relative monthly scores for all terms, which we termed relative interest scores (RIS). Therefore, the RIS is a surrogate for the popularity of the term. The mean RIS was then compared between each term. Trend analyses were performed. We compared linear models to show trends in the volume of searches for the United States and Worldwide. Model fit was good, and regression analysis showed significant trends over time for all searches. Use of search terms increased significantly over time (all models P < .05, Fig 1 A, B,C). All trends showed mostly upward trajectory for the entirety of the study time period. Peak interest was also evaluated based on time and place. The term “kidney disease” seems to be gaining popularity in the month of March, which coincides with kidney disease awareness month. There has been a marked and statistically significant rise in search query volume related to kidney disease since 2004, along with prevalence. It's encouraging to see trends of peaks in the month of March may be due to worldwide celebration of kidney disease month as well as kidney day. However, reason for peaks in other specific months should be explored and can be applied to future awareness campaigns for better effectiveness. Similarly, lessons from other successful campaigns for example Breast Cancer Awareness (Fig 1D) can be utilized to further increase effectiveness of kidney disease awareness campaigns. Use of Google trends allows as an alternative to surveillance of campaigns and awareness about health related topics.