JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The burden of pruritus is high, especially among patients with dermatologic diseases. Estimating the prevalence rates of pruritus and the people’s medical needs is challeng-ing since not all affected people consult a physician.

Objective:

To investigate pruritus search behavior trends in Germany and identify associations with external factors.

Methods:

Google AdWords Keyword Planner was used to quantify pruritus-related search que-ries in 16 German cities from August 2014 to July 2018. All identified keywords were qualitatively categorized and pruritus-related terms were descriptively analyzed. The number of search queries per 100,000 inhabitants of each city was compared to envi-ronmental factors such as temperature, humidity, particulate matter (PM10), and sun-shine duration to investigate potential correlations.

Results:

We included 1,150 pruritus-related keywords, which resulted in 2,851,290 queries. “Pruritus” (n=115,680) and “anal pruritus” (n=102,390) were the most searched for keywords. The most populated cities had the lowest number of queries/100,000 inhab-itants (Berlin, n=13,641; Hamburg, n=18,303; and Munich, n=21,363), while smaller cities (Kiel, n=35,027; and Freiburg, n=39,501) had the highest. Temperature had a greater effect on search query number (β coefficient: -7.94, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-10.74; -5.15]) than PM10 (-5.13, [-7.04, -3.22]), humidity (4.73, [2.70, 6.75]), or sunshine duration (0.66, [0.36, 0.97]). The highest relative number of search queries occurred during the winter (December to February).

Conclusions:

Google data analysis provided good insight into general search behaviors. Examining different cities across Germany and comparing search volumes with weather data were valuable for identifying trends and respective inhabitants’ needs.