What Canadians search about asthma: A 10-year Google Trends study on asthma and related topics

Abstract

Background

Google Trends (GTr) is now becoming an important tool in epidemiological studies to assess the trend of online searches by people of any geographical location. While previous studies assessed trends in searches for some allergic conditions, very few studies reported search patterns for asthma and asthma-related topics.

Methods

We took monthly Canadian GTr data for asthma-related keywords such as ‘asthma’, ‘shortness of breath’, ‘wheeze’, ‘asthma emergency’, ‘asthma hospital’, and ‘asthma medication’ between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2023. We assessed the trend of yearly relative search volume (RSV) for the past 10 years. We also assessed the trend by influenza and wildfire seasons.

Results

We observed a marginal increase in searches for some asthma-related topics such as ‘asthma’ ‘shortness of breath’, and ‘wheeze’ in Canada between 2014 and 2023 but not other topics such as ‘asthma emergency’, ‘asthma hospital’, and ‘asthma medication’. The pattern of searches for ‘asthma’, ‘shortness of breath’, and ‘wheeze’ did not change by influenza of wildfire seasons across the years.

Conclusion

Our study is the first to demonstrate searches for asthma and related topics by Canadians in the past 10 years and indicates GTr as an emerging tool in epidemiology that can be used in planning the implementation of public health policies.