Peaks in online inquiries into pharyngitis-related symptoms correspond with annual incidence rates

Brkic, Faris F.; Besser, Gerold; Janik, Stefan; Gadenstaetter, Anselm J.; Parzefall, Thomas; Riss, Dominik; Liu, David T.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether web-based public inquiries into pharyngitis-related search terms follow annual incidence peaks of acute pharyngitis in various countries from both hemispheres. METHODS: Google Trends (GT) was utilized for systematic acquisition of pharyngitis-related search terms (sore throat, cough, fever, cold). Six countries from both hemispheres including four English (United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia) and two non-English speaking countries (Austria and Germany) were selected for further analysis. Time series data on relative search interest for pharyngitis-related search terms, covering a timeframe between 2004 and 2019 were extracted. Following reliability analysis using the intra-class correlation coefficient, the cosinor time series analysis was utilized to determine annual peaks in public-inquiries. RESULTS: The extracted datasets of GT proved to be highly reliable with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.83 to 1.0. Graphical visualization showed annual seasonal peaks for pharyngitis-related search terms in all included countries. The cosinor time series analysis revealed these peaks to be statistically significant during winter months (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our study revealed seasonal variations for pharyngitis-related terms which corresponded to winter incidence peaks of acute pharyngitis. These results highlight the need for easily accessible information on diagnosis, therapy, and red-flag symptoms for this common disease. Accurately informed patients might contribute to a reduction of unnecessary clinic visits and potentially cutback the futile antibiotic overuse. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00405-020-06362-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.