Abstract: FR-PO040
Have You Googled Your Kidney? Interpretation of Google Trends Data During World Kidney Day
Session Information
- AI, Digital Health, Data Science - II
November 03, 2023 | Location: Exhibit Hall, Pennsylvania Convention Center
Abstract Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Category: Augmented Intelligence, Digital Health, and Data Science
- 300 Augmented Intelligence, Digital Health, and Data Science
Authors
- Pawly, Chrystel, Yale University Department of Internal Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
- Ibrahim, Maroun, Lebanese American University School of Medicine, Byblos, Lebanon
- Mordan, Armenia, Yale University Department of Internal Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Background
World Kidney Day (WKD) is a global campaign conducted yearly in March to raise awareness of the importance of kidney disease. Analysis of the public’s online interest may provide insight into the effectiveness of such awareness efforts. Our objective is to evaluate the impact of WKD by examining the temporal correlation between online searches related to kidney disease and the WKD campaign.
Methods
Using Google Trend (Gtr), we performed a retrospective study looking at relative search volumes (RSVs) of terms related to kidney disease from January 2006 to April 2023 in the USA. The search terms’ RSVs during March of each year were compared to the other months. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the statistical significance of the change in the RSV of WKD and its related search terms such as “Kidney Disease”, “Chronic Kidney Disease”, “Kidney damage”, “Acute Kidney Injury”, and “Dialysis”.
Results
Throughout the years, an upward trend was observed in the RSVs of WKD and its associated terms. However, no consistent statistically significant correlation was found between the RSVs of WKD and related terms during March compared to the other months of the year. There were isolated statistically positive correlations found in March 2023 between RSVs for WKD, “dialysis,” and “kidney disease” (p=0.04 and p=0.019, respectively), as well as an isolated positive correlation in March 2019 with the term “kidney disease” (p=0.006). Surprisingly, the data showed a significant negative correlation (p=0.039) between WKD and “Kidney Failure” for all the years analyzed.
Conclusion
Studies with similar designs have shown solid statistical correlations between the public’s online queries and the Pink October campaign for breast cancer and the GoRedW campaign for heart disease. The interpretation of these findings suggests that these campaigns have successfully raised public awareness. Our study found an inconsistent positive correlation between WKD and specific terms over the years within our study period. Moreover, a negative correlation was noted with “Kidney Failure” for all years. Our research emphasizes the need for more studies on creating and executing awareness campaigns for kidney disease that can achieve the same success as those for other similarly burdensome illnesses.