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Research Article

Periodic Trends in Internet Searches for Ocular Symptoms in the US

ORCID Icon, , &
Pages 352-357 | Received 04 Jul 2022, Accepted 25 Aug 2022, Published online: 14 Sep 2022
 

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To identify periodic trends in internet searches for ocular symptoms and to determine the seasonal peaks and troughs.

Methods

This cross-sectional study examined publicly available Google Trends data from the United States (01/01/2015 to 12/31/2019). A list of common ocular symptoms was compiled from the American Academy of Ophthalmology Eye Health website and Wills Eye Manual. Ocular symptoms were stratified into categories involving vision change, eye pain, or eye redness. The search volume over time for each term was modeled using periodic regression functions and the goodness-of-fit was reported. Fisher’s exact tests were used to compare the characteristics of periodic vs. non-periodic query terms.

Results

Seasonal trends were demonstrated by 45% (48/106) of the ocular symptoms included in this investigation. Search terms with best fit to the periodic model included stye (r2 = 0.89), pink eye (r2 = 0.82), dry eye (r2 = 0.76), blurry vision (r2 = 0.72), and swollen eye (r2 = 0.71). Periodic search terms were more likely to involve eye redness (21% vs. 11%, p = .014) and less likely to involve vision change (11% vs. 36%; p < .001). Periodic queries involving eye redness most often peaked in the spring and those involving eye pain peaked in the summer.

Conclusion

Ocular symptom queries directly reflect seasonal trends for allergic eye disease and ocular trauma. Search query analyses can serve as accurate epidemiological tools with research and real-world clinical applications.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09286586.2022.2119260

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ T32HS000063]; National Eye Institute [NIH K08EY030164].

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