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Potential uses of an infodemiology approach for health-care services for rheumatology

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Abstract

Objectives

This is a demand-based infodemiology study using the Google Trends and AdWords tools to illustrate infodemiology’s potential use in rheumatology. The study investigates three questions in North American countries: (1) What terms associated with “rheumatology” and “arthritis” do people search for on Google? (2) What is the search volume for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs)? and (3) What is the search volume for the term “arthritis” compared with for “hepatitis C” and “breast cancer”?

Methods

We conducted independent searches by country and search term for 2015–2017. Seventeen DMARDs were searched for 2015 through May 2018, with the turmeric remedy included for comparison. Data were exported to Excel for further analysis, adjusted by country population, and expressed as searches per 100,000 inhabitants (SpTh).

Results

There were approximately 550 associated terms for “arthritis” in each country, and 5679 SpTh for DMARDs across the three countries. Searches for turmeric numbered slightly lower than for all DMARDs together in Canada and the USA, but were 70% higher in Mexico. Turmeric was also searched four times more than the most-searched biological DMARD in Canada and the USA, and 60 times more in Mexico. Arthritis was more commonly searched for in Canada than hepatitis C and breast cancer, but hepatitis C was highest in the USA and breast cancer in Mexico. Monthly trends did not show expected peaks associated with arthritis awareness campaigns.

Conclusion

Infodemiology provides preliminary information that could help in generating hypotheses, assessing health-care interventions, or even in providing patient-centered care.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Adam Goulston, MS, ELS, from Edanz Group (www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript, and Mr. Josué Paul Rojas-Góngora for designing the figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Investigación en Enfermedades Cronico-Degenerativas, Colomos 2292, Providencia, 44620, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

    Gerardo Martinez-Arroyo, Stephanie Ramos-Gomez, Joel A. Rojas-Gongora, Aldo Barajas-Ochoa & Cesar Ramos-Remus

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Prados Providencia 100, 44670, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

    Elias Kaleb Rojero-Gil, Lilia Patricia Bustamante-Montes & Cesar Ramos-Remus

  3. Universidad Iberoamericana A.C. Campus Ciudad de Mexico, Paseo de la Reforma 880, Lomas de Santa Fe, 01219, Mexico City, Mexico

    Jose Yañez

Authors
  1. Gerardo Martinez-Arroyo
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  2. Stephanie Ramos-Gomez
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  3. Elias Kaleb Rojero-Gil
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  4. Joel A. Rojas-Gongora
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  8. Cesar Ramos-Remus
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Correspondence to Cesar Ramos-Remus.

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Martinez-Arroyo, G., Ramos-Gomez, S., Rojero-Gil, E.K. et al. Potential uses of an infodemiology approach for health-care services for rheumatology. Clin Rheumatol 38, 869–876 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-018-4364-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-018-4364-z

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