P344 What our patients are looking for - the common fields of interest in IBD patients: A Google Trends Analysis
Zarchi, R.(1);Elgressy, A.(2);Ben-Horin, S.(2);Kopylov, U.(2);
(1)Tel Aviv University, Sackler School of Medicine., Tel Aviv, Israel;(2)Tel-HaShomer Sheba Medical Center, Department of Gastroenterology, Ramat Gan, Israel;
Background
Inflammatory bowel diseases are varied in the way they present, progress and respond to treatment. IBD patients frequently complain about the lack of proper knowledge and support systems, this gap leads to an extensive online search for information. The aim of our study was to characterize the trends in IBD-related Google searches by exploring the Google Trends query tool
Methods
Results
Out of the 20 domains researched over 370 months, the 10 most searched domains in Crohn’s disease related searches was ’diet’(41.30%), ’cancer’(14.22%), ’weight’(7.52%), ’pregnancy’(4.44%), ’disability’(4.05%), ’COVID’(3.45%), ’alcohol’ (3.22%), ’vaccine’ (3.17%), ’stress’ (2.54%) and ’smoking’ (2.47%). The 10 most searched domain in ulcerative colitis related searches was ’diet’ (41.72%), ’cancer’ (18.69%), ’weight’ (5.47%), ’pregnancy’(4.77%), ’smoking’(3.76%), ’alcohol’(3.63%), ’probiotics(3.27%), ’disability’(2.77%), ’stress’(2.62%) and ’covid’(2.12%). When focusing at the time period between March 2020 and October 2021, the most searched domain in crohn’s disease was ’COVID’(22.67%) followed by ’diet’(21.81%), ’cancer’(12.52%), ’vaccine’(10.70%), ’weight’(7.07%), ’disability’ (4.34%), ’alcohol’ (2.82%), ’pregnancy’ (2.67%), ’stress’ (2.22%) and ’biologics’ (2.17%). Over the same time span, the most searched domain in ulcerative colitis was ’diet’ (29.59%) followed by ’cancer’ (18.32%), ’COVID’ (11.84%), ’weight’ (6.32%), ’vaccine’ (5.75%), ’alcohol’ (4.07%), ’pregnancy’ (3.66%), ’disability’ (3.06%), ’smoking’ (2.61%) and ’probiotics’ (2.46%).
Conclusion
Patients have numerous interests related to their IBD disease. The most searched IBD-related item is diet, with COVID-19 leading since the break of the pandemic. Our results are a surrogate representation of the patient’s knowledge gaps and needs, and we suggest that IBD healthcare providers should focus their guidance on the issues identified by the patients as such.