'Dr. Google, I have a stomach ache' - seasonal variations in abdominal pain: a 4-year retrospective data analysis from Google Ads keywords planner.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Internet traffic may reflect the prevalence of real-world ailments. The aim of this study was to analyse queries associated with abdominal pain and to investigate seasonal frequency and trends of searches in Poland.

Methods

We analysed mean search volume from March 2015 to February 2019 of keywords associated with 'abdominal pain' in the Polish language generated from the Google Ads Planner. Keywords were categorised by location, feature or type of pain, concurrent symptoms, frequency and patient groups, etc. We compared differences in search volumes across seasons and years.

Results

Overall, 24,673,430 queries were associated with abdominal pain in the period analysed. The number of searches associated with abdominal pain in winter increased by ~30% compar

SUBMITTER: Kaminski M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7391444 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature