Google Trends And Patterns Of Interest In Vascular Disease And Management In The Covid-19 Era
Akila Pai, BS1, George Titomihelakis, MD, MS2, Krystina Choinski, MD2, Ajit Rao, MD2, Rami O. Tadros, MD2, John Phair, MD2.
1Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA, 2Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
OBJECTIVES: Soon after the World Health Organization’s declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the American College of Surgeons promptly recommended the cessation of elective procedures. The objective of this study was to analyze patterns of interest in vascular diseases and surgery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: A retrospective study of Google Trends data for 28 keywords encompassing a broad spectrum of vascular diseases was performed. Generalized estimating equation models with gamma distributions were used to compare the relative search volume (RSV) of each keyword over three unique time periods from 2020-2021 (March-June, July-October, and November-February) to data from 2017-2020.
RESULTS: Throughout the pandemic, there has been a significant reduction of interest in vascular-related diseases and surgeries. The RSV for search terms including abdominal aortic aneurysm (p<0.001), carotid endarterectomy (p<0.001) & carotid stenting (p<0.001), peripheral arterial disease (p=0.046), lower extremity bypass (p=0.017), varicose veins (p<0.001), DVT (p<0.001), and dialysis fistula (p=0.002) were all significantly lower in March-June of 2020 compared to previous years. From November 2020 to February 2021, the RSV for keywords of long-term complications associated with COVID-19 including pulmonary embolism (p=0.011) and blood clot (p=0.006) were significantly higher than previous years.
CONCLUSIONS: Public interest in long-term vascular complications associated with COVID-19 has increased over time. However, the significant reductions in public interest related to common vascular diseases and procedures may portend poor outcomes associated with delays in routine vascular care.
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