Impact of the World Inflammatory Bowel Disease Day and Crohn's & Colitis Awareness Week on Population Interest between 2016 and 2020: Google Trends Analysis

Silangcruz, K.; Nishimura, Y.; Czech, T.; Kimura, N.; Hagiya, H.; Koyama, T.; Otsuka, F.

Background: More than 6 million people are affected by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) globally. World IBD Day (WID; May 19) and Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Week (CCAW; December 1-7) occur yearly as national health observances to raise public awareness of IBD, but their effects are unclear. Methods: This study evaluates the impact of WID and CCAW on the public awareness of IBD in the United States (US) and worldwide from 2016 to 2020 using the relative search volume (RSV) of "IBD," "Ulcerative colitis," and "Crohn's disease" in Google Trends (GT). To identify significant timepoints of trend changes (joinpoints), we performed Joinpoint regression analysis. Results: No joinpoints were noted around the time of WID or CCAW during the study period in the search results of the US. Worldwide, joinpoints were noted around WID in 2020 with the search for "IBD" and around CAAW in 2017 and 2019 to search for "ulcerative colitis." However, the extents of trend changes were modest without statistically significant increases. Conclusions: WID and CCAD may not have worked as expected to raise public awareness of IBD. Additional measures are necessary to help raise awareness of IBD related to the health observances.