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Psoriasis: identifying trends through search engines

When looking for information, search engines are the first method the population and professionals seek for information. Google is the most prominent of these engines with almost 91% of market share and ‘Google Trends’ has as a result the most data for the measurement of search trends by a population. This is how it works: for a given term correlations are measured according to the number of search queries. In this letter to the editor by Martinez-Lopez et al. search trends for ‘psoriasis’ are explored by separating topic searches and news searches over a 12-year period (retrospective). Interesting differences are observed between ‘topic searches’ and ‘news searches’. Topic searches include natural remedies whereas news features what is making the ‘buzz’ such as celebrities with psoriasis [such as Kim Kardashian. . .(https://www.eve rydayhealth.com/psoriasis/living-with/celebs-with-psoriasis/)] and treatments, such as the biologics (when they come out). Over time, the disease is more and more associated with the celebrities affected by the condition, which increases identification of individuals affected by psoriasis. However, the number of queries on psoriasis has not increased significantly over the study period. There are several comments to be made: • It might be worth mentioning that what is finally searched by the general public is directly determined by what appears on TV, news, the Internet (and through healthcare professionals!), whether ‘naturally’ or through advertising. • What influences these searches engine results on the Internet is influenced by search-optimization techniques, and the websites with the highest Google ‘Page Rank score’ (no longer published publicly) will appear on the top of the search engine results: examples of websites with high indexing include media websites. This can lead to alteration of the nature of the information the user finally gets and the searched terms. • Let us not forget Social Media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, much used by the celebrities themselves which can explain the alteration of queries over time, especially these last 5 years. To illustrate social media influences 45% of Americans to seek care. • In addition to search engines, professionals or the general public will probably search for medical databases such as ‘medline’ for information on diagnosis, pathophysiology and treatment.