Seasonal Patterns and Trends in Dermatoses in Poland

Krzysztof Bartosz Klimiuk, Dawid Krefta, Karol Kołkowski, Karol Flisikowski, Małgorzata Sokołowska-Wojdyło and Łukasz Balwicki
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Krzysztof Bartosz Klimiuk: Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, 80-210 Gdańsk, Poland
Dawid Krefta: Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland
Karol Kołkowski: Dermatological Students Scientific Association, Department of Dermatology, Venerology and Allergology, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, 80-210 Gdańsk, Poland
Karol Flisikowski: Faculty of Management and Economics, Gdańsk University of Technology, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland
Małgorzata Sokołowska-Wojdyło: Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology, Medical University of Gdańsk, 80-210 Gdańsk, Poland
Łukasz Balwicki: Department of Public Health and Social Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, 80-210 Gdańsk, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-14

Abstract: Background: The amount of data available online is constantly increasing, including search behavior and tracking trends in domains such as Google. Analyzing the data helps to predict patient needs and epidemiological events more accurately. Our study aimed to identify dermatology-related terms that occur seasonally and any search anomalies during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods: The data were gathered using Google Trends, with 69 entries between January-2010 and December-2020 analyzed. We conducted the Seasonal Mann–Kendal Test to determine the strength of trends. The month with the highest seasonal component (RSV) and the lowest seasonal component (RSV) was indicated for every keyword. Groups of keywords occurring together regularly at specific periods of the year were shown. Results: We found that some topics were seasonally searched in winter (e.g., herpes, scabies, candida) and others in summer (e.g., erythema, warts, urticaria). Conclusions: Interestingly, downward trends in searches on sexually transmitted diseases in comparison with increased infection rates reported officially show a strong need for improved sexual education in Poland. There were no significant differences in trends for coronavirus-related cutaneous symptoms during 2020. We have shown that the seasonality of dermatologically related terms searched in Poland via Google did not differ significantly during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Keywords: Google Trends; trends; seasonality; dermatoses; STD; infodemiology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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