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

Abstract

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