Volatility of Public Interest in Orthopaedics during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Several studies have demonstrated the decrease of public interest in elective orthopaedic surgeries throughout the beginning and middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, but none have assessed the return, if any, of public interest as the pandemic has progressed. Questions/Purpose: Apply a user-friendly tool and replicable methodology to (1) determine differential impacts of COVID-19 on search frequencies for exploratory and interventional search terms; (2) evaluate if public interest towards some common orthopaedic symptoms and their respective elective procedures have returned to pre-pandemic baseline. Method: Google search frequencies for common orthopaedic procedures and symptoms were extracted from Google Extended Trends for Health (GETH) between January 7th, 2018, and January 15th, 2022, using the Google Trends Information Extraction Tool. Queried terms were split into two categories: exploratory and interventional. Control limit analysis was performed for each search term to determine special cause variations and assess any recovery. Results: All search terms saw significant decreases the week of March 15th, 2020, and five of the six saw at least one more drop during the 2020 holiday season. Search volumes for exploratory terms initially fell less and recovered nearly four times faster compared to search volumes for interventional terms, but volatility of public interest was seen until the end of the study window. Conclusions: Public interest in elective orthopaedic procedures continues to be chaotic during this pandemic. This study is the first to assess the initial recovery of public interest in elective orthopaedic procedures in the COVID-19 era using a novel application of the Google Trends Information Extraction Tool and provides a timely update on changes in public perception as the pandemic has progressed. These results can be used to better understand, quantify, and potentially anticipate the interests of the national patient population and tailor care, public outreach programs, or policy based on real-time search trends.