Systemic lupus erythematosus on social networking sites: Friends or foes?

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is one of the most studied autoimmune diseases. The interest shown for this pathology is translated into international scientific journals, congresses, meetings and, recently, in large data available online. Social networking sites (SNS) have gradually advanced from ways to facilitate interpersonal relations to important sources of information, including medical data regarding SLE, with sites largely accessed by both doctors and patients. Albeit the use of SNS can be valuable in providing education and promoting development of public health, it can be misleading if unprofessional sources of information are used; therefore, both "friends and foes" of the data accessed on large scale should always be considered. This viewpoint is a discussion of the potential benefits and harms related to the SNS use for SLE patients as well as for their physicians.

Interest on the internet for systemic lupus erythematosus: Analysis of Google Trends in Latin American countries

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

Information available on the internet about Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) can influence the doctor-patient relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the terms used for SLE on the internet.

METHODS

We analyzed the data downloaded from Google Trends, considering the term "Lupus" in a six-year web-based research. The frequency of the terms for each Pan-American country was obtained automatically from Google Trends, which reports relative search volumes or RSV (on a scale from 0 to 100) across regions.

RESULTS

We obtained a total of 67 registered terms in 18 countries. The terms were distributed into five categories. The categories with interest in all countries were "definition" and "symptoms".

CONCLUSIONS

Google Trends allows us to find useful information about SLE on the internet; once the accuracy of this information is validated, it can be used by patients, health institutions, rheumatologists and other health professionals.

Seasonality of Back Pain in Italy: An Infodemiology Study

BACKGROUND

E-health tools have been used to assess the temporal variations of different health problems. The aim of our infodemiology study was to investigate the seasonal pattern of search volumes for back pain in Italy.

METHODS

In Italian, back pain is indicated by the medical word "lombalgia". Using Google Trends, we selected the three search terms related to "lombalgia" with higher relative search volumes (RSV), (namely, "mal di schiena", "dolore alla schiena" and "dolore lombare"), representing the semantic preferences of users when performing web queries for back pain in Italy. Wikipedia page view statistics were used to identify the number of visits to the page "lombalgia". Strength and direction of secular trends were assessed using the Mann-Kendall test. Cosinor analysis was used to evaluate the potential seasonality of back pain-related RSV.

RESULTS

We found a significant upward secular trend from 2005 to 2020 for search terms "mal di schiena" (τ = 0.734, p < 0.0001), "dolore alla schiena" (τ = 0.713, p < 0.0001) and "dolore lombare" (τ = 0.628, p < 0.0001). Cosinor analysis on Google Trends RSV showed a significant seasonality for the terms "mal di schiena" (p_cos < 0.001), "dolore alla schiena" (p_cos < 0.0001), "dolore lombare" (p_cos < 0.0001) and "lombalgia" (p_cos = 0.017). Cosinor analysis performed on views for the page "lombalgia" in Wikipedia confirmed a significant seasonality (p_cos < 0.0001). Both analyses demonstrated a peak of interest in winter months and decrease in spring/summer.

CONCLUSIONS

Our infodemiology approach revealed significant seasonal fluctuations in search queries for back pain in Italy, with peaking volumes during the coldest months of the year.

Public interest in Raynaud's phenomenon: A Google Trends analysis

Raynaud's phenomenon is a common disorder affecting body extremities and other vascular beds. As infodemiological methods have developed, online search tools could be used to explore the public interest of the disease. The study aimed to determine the annual trend, seasonal pattern, and associated topics of Raynaud's phenomenon. Google Trends was used to collect the data. "Raynaud syndrome" was selected as the search term. Data on monthly relative search volume (RSV) were collected from four selected countries (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand) and globally. Related topics were obtained, and annual-related topics were also collected for analysis. The maximum RSV appeared in January 2019, and the minimum value was observed in August 2011. The peak for RSV occurred in winter, and the bottom appeared in summer. In top related topics, "Maurice Raynaud" was the most related. In rising related topics, disease manifestations and autoimmune connective diseases were highly concerned. For annual-related topics, associated diseases were attracting more attention over time. The population is interested in related diseases, pathogenesis, and treatment. There was a peak in winter for searching and supported the importance of season variation on the impact of Raynaud's phenomenon.

Using internet search data to explore the global public concerns in ankylosing spondylitis

OBJECTIVE

This study explored the changes of global public interest in internet search of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) based on Google Trends (GT) data, in order to reflect the characteristics of AS itself.

METHODS

GT was used to obtain the search popularity scores of the term 'AS' on a global scale, between January 2004 and December 2018, under the 'health' classification. Based on the global search data of AS provided by GT, the cosinor analysis was used to test whether there was seasonality in AS.

RESULTS

In general, AS related search volume demonstrated a decreasing trend from January 2004 to December 2014 and then remain stable from January 2015 to December 2018. No obvious seasonal variations were detected in AS related search volume (amplitude=1.54; phase: month=3.9; low point: month=9.9; p>0.025), which peaked in April and bottomed out in October. The top 17 rising topics were adalimumab, spondylolisthesis, Morbus, Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev, autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosis, HLA- B27 positive, Crohn's disease, rheumatology, spondylosis, arthritis, uveitis, rheumatism, sacroiliac, psoriatic arthritis and spondylitis.

CONCLUSIONS

Globally, there is no significant seasonal variation in GT for AS. The top fast-growing topics related to AS may be beneficial for doctors to provide targeted health education of the disease to patients and their families.