Use of Online Information in Musculoskeletal Conditions: An Analysis of Google Trends Data.

Background/objective: We aimed to investigate the yearly online public interest for gout, low back pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, the most popular topics searched for these conditions, and the association between the change in their interest over time and the sociodemographic index of the search location.

Methods: We conducted online searches in Google Trends for the aforementioned conditions between 2004 and 2020. The search volumes for each condition (relative to all searches conducted in the period) and the top and rising related queries and topics were downloaded and summarized.