Previously submitted to: JMIR Dermatology (no longer under consideration since Oct 19, 2023)
Date Submitted: Nov 2, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Trends in public interest in pediatric dermatology over the last 20 years and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Infoveillance Study using Google Trends
Background:
- Pediatric dermatologic needs are growing however, it is unclear whether the public is aware of the utility of this field.
Objective:
To assess trends in public interest in Pediatric Dermatology.
Methods:
We used Google Trends (GT) to assess public interest via ‘relative search query volume in pediatric dermatology compared to forecasted prediction by the ARIMA model. Next, we assessed the correlation between RSI and the number of PDs at the state level and generated a heat map of the latter.
Results:
On average, RSI in queries for ‘pediatric dermatologist’ increased by 3.55 points (SE=0.002) per month from 2004 through August of 2022; however, the lowest dip in RSI occurred in April 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown—which was the largest deviation from the ARIMA model. RSI was significantly correlated with the number of PDs at the state level (R = 0.44, P = .001). States notably lacking a PD were Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, Arkansas and Mississippi.
Conclusions:
The field of PD is growing. Currently, disparities exist between states with the greatest number of practicing PDs and the largest RSI. Ongoing efforts are needed to increase public interest in the field and address the ongoing physician shortage across states.
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