ArticleTherapeutic advances in gastroenterology2020
'Dr. Google, I have a stomach ache' - seasonal variations in abdominal pain: a 4-year retrospective data analysis from Google Ads keywords planner.
Article in Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Analyzing Asian Trends in Ocular Cosmetic Surgery Through Internet Search Patterns.Aesthetic plastic surgery · 2025Article
- Exploring the Thoughts, Needs and Fears of Chemotherapy Patients-An Analysis Based on Google Search Behavior.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Retrospective Study on the Association Between Climate Factors and Infant Colic in Beijing (2021-2022).Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Monitoring disease activity of pollen allergies: What crowdsourced data are telling us.The World Allergy Organization journal · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInternet traffic may reflect the prevalence of real-world ailments. The aim of this study was to analyse queries associated with abdominal pain and to investigate seasonal frequency and trends of searches in Poland.
methodsWe analysed mean search volume from March 2015 to February 2019 of keywords associated with 'abdominal pain' in the Polish language generated from the Google Ads Planner. Keywords were categorised by location, feature or type of pain, concurrent symptoms, frequency and patient groups, etc. We compared differences in search volumes across seasons and years.
resultsOverall, 24,673,430 queries were associated with abdominal pain in the period analysed. The number of searches associated with abdominal pain in winter increased by ~30% compared with queries searched in summer. There were significantly more searches related to abdominal pain located in the epigastric, umbilical, hypogastrium, left lumbar, left iliac and right iliac regions combined with vomiting or fever, and acute or burning sensation in cold months. We did not observe any specific patterns of pain in the right lumbar or left hypochondrium region, co-presence of flatulence, acute, cramping or persistent/chronic or strong abdominal pain.
conclusionInternet queries associated with abdominal pain and related factors have increased in the past 4 years and present a seasonal pattern. Google Ads may be a valuable tool to assess the prevalence of complaints in under-researched regions. The observed trends in queries related to abdominal pain merely reflect the scale of the problem. The reported pattern should be verified in epidemiological studies.
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