Internet Search Trends for Common Hand Surgery Diagnoses

Abstract

Purpose: The internet is a common resource for patients seeking health information. Trends in internet search interests for common hand surgery diagnoses and their seasonal variations have not been previously studied. The objectives of this study were (1) to describe the temporal trends in internet search interest for common hand surgery diagnoses in the recent five-year time period and (2) to assess seasonal variations in search term interest.

Methods: An internet-based study of internet search term interest of 10 common hand surgery diagnoses was performed using Google Trends (Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA) from January 2017 to December 2021. The 10 diagnoses were "carpal tunnel syndrome," "trigger finger," "thumb arthritis," "ganglion cyst," "de Quervain's tenosynovitis," "lateral epicondylitis," "Dupuytren disease," "distal radius fracture," "finger fracture," and "scaphoid fracture." Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess for seasonal differences in search interest, and temporal trends were assessed using the two-tailed Mann-Kendall trend test.

Results: During the study period, there was an increasing trend for search interest for "carpal tunnel syndrome," "trigger finger," "thumb arthritis," "Dupuytren disease," and "finger fracture," both in the United States and worldwide. There was no significant temporal trend for "ganglion cyst," "de Quervain's tenosynovitis," "lateral epicondylitis," and "distal radius fracture." There were no significant temporal trend for "scaphoid fracture" in the United States and a decreasing trend worldwide. There was significant seasonal variation in search term interest for "finger fracture" in the United States, "finger fracture" worldwide, and "scaphoid fracture" in the United States, with popularity peaking in the fall.

Conclusions: Despite growth in global internet usage, internet search interest has remained stagnant for many common hand surgery conditions, which may represent a shifting preference for patients to obtain health information from other resources. Internet search interest for traumatic hand conditions corresponds to seasonal variations in fracture epidemiology and peaks in the fall season.

Keywords: hand surgery; health literacy; internet; online; seasonal variation.

Figure 1. Bar graph depicting the search interest for the search terms with statistically significant seasonal variation.