Seasonal and Geographic Patterns in Seeking Cardiovascular Health Information: An Analysis of the Online Search Trends

Objective: To ascertain whether temporal and geographic interest in seeking cardiovascular disease (CVD) information online follows seasonal and geographic patterns similar to those observed in real-world data.Methods: We searched Google Trends for popular search terms relating to CVD. Relative search volumes (RSVs) were obtained for the period January 4, 2004, to April 19, 2014, for the United States and Australia. We compared average RSVs by month and season and used cosinor analysis to test for seasonal variation in RSVs. We also assessed correlations between state-level RSVs and CVD burden using an ecological correlational design.Results: RSVs were 15% higher in the United States and 45% higher in Australia for winter compared with summer (