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. 2024 May;170(5):1442-1448.
doi: 10.1002/ohn.643. Epub 2024 Jan 14.

Is Public Interest Associated with Real-World Management of Ankyloglossia?

Danial F Naseem  1 , Amar H Sheth  1 , Alan G Cheng  1 , Z Jason Qian  1
Affiliations

Is Public Interest Associated with Real-World Management of Ankyloglossia?

Danial F Naseem et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2024 May.

Abstract

Objectives: Assess the relationship between public interest in ankyloglossia as determined by internet search volume and real-world medical claims data.

Study design: Retrospective Cohort Study.

Setting: This retrospective cohort study was conducted using claims data from the Merative™ Marketscan® Research Databases. The internet search data was collected from Google Trends.

Methods: Annual Google Trends data were compiled using search terms associated with "ankyloglossia" and "frenotomy" for the years 2011 to 2021. We obtained incidence of ankyloglossia diagnoses and frenotomy procedures in children under 12 months from Marketscan relative to all infants enrolled. We compared associations between search and incidence data among US states and over time.

Results: Google search correlated with ankyloglossia incidence (r = 0.4104, P = .0031) and with frenotomy incidence (r = 0.4062, P = .0034) per state. Ankyloglossia diagnoses increased with Google search index (coefficient = 0.336, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.284, 0.388) and year (coefficient = 0.028, 95% CI 0.025, 0.031). Similarly, frenotomy procedures increased with Google search index (coefficient = 0.371, 95% CI 0.313, 0.429) and year (coefficient = 0.027, 95% CI 0.024, 0.030).

Conclusions: Associations between online ankyloglossia search trends and both diagnosis and treatment rates, persist across US regions and timeframes. Internet search trends are pivotal in shaping pediatric health care decisions, driving clinical consensus, and disseminating evidence-based information.

Keywords: ankyloglossia; claims database; frenotomy; google trends; tongue tie.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Pearson Correlation of Google Trends Search Index versus MarketScan Ankyloglossia (A) and Frenulectomy (B) indices. Each data point represents the labeled state’s average index value across the given years.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Search and incidence index values over 2011–2016. Each data point represents the labeled state’s index value for a given year.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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