1. Seasonality of Ankle Swelling: Population Symptom Reporting Using Google Trends
- Author
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Michael R. Kolber, Harvey Sternberg, G. Michael Allan, Christina Korownyk, Nigel Flook, Fangwei Liu, and Scott Garrison
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Information Seeking Behavior ,Population ,Symptom reporting ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Diagnostic Self Evaluation ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Edema ,Humans ,Medicine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,education ,Internet ,education.field_of_study ,Research Briefs ,business.industry ,Seasonality ,medicine.disease ,Search Engine ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Physical therapy ,Seasons ,Ankle ,Family Practice ,business - Abstract
In our experience, complaints of ankle swelling are more common in summer, typically from patients with no obvious cardiovascular disease. Surprisingly, this observation has never been reported. To objectively establish this phenomenon, we sought evidence of seasonality in the public's Internet searches for ankle swelling. Our data, obtained from Google Trends, consisted of all related Google searches in the United States from January 4, 2004, to January 26, 2016. Consistent with our expectations and confirmed by similar data for Australia, Internet searches for information on ankle swelling are highly seasonal (highest in midsummer), with seasonality explaining 86% of search volume variability.
- Published
- 2016
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