Dermatological insights from Google Trends: what does the public think is important during COVID-19 lockdown?

In the UK, Google is often the search engine used to explore information relating to many aspects of people’s lives, including dermatological advice and information. The frequency of searching for particular terms can indicate the relative importance that the public assigns to various conditions and is dynamic, fluctuating in different societal contexts, such as during a pandemic. We explored whether the trends of Google searches of common medical, lesional and cosmetic dermatology conditions and procedures changed during the COVID‐19 pandemic in order to gauge whether the relative importance assigned by the public to particular conditions or facets of dermatology changed during that timeframe.

Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/) was used to compare the relative frequency of English language search terms in the UK over a 90‐day period (2 January 2020 to 12 May 2020). The authors established categories of medical, lesional and cosmetic dermatology (see Table 1). The relative number of searches for medical and lesional dermatology terms stayed broadly stable throughout the lockdown period (Fig. 1a,b), but the relative number of searches for cosmetic dermatology terms appeared to mostly decline (Figs 1c and 2). Of particular note, the relative number of searches for the terms ‘acne’, ‘wart’ and ‘hand eczema’ rose both qualitatively and in percentage terms over the 90‐day period. The increased interest in acne (22% increase) and warts (25% increase) during this period may reflect the public desire to self‐treat these nonurgent, but life‐impacting conditions during a period of lockdown. The 16% increase in searches for hand eczema reflects greater emphasis (and public health campaigns) regarding hand hygiene, which has led to an increased incidence of hand eczema, for which patients are seeking solutions.

Table 1

Relative change in number of searches from 2 January 2020 to 12 May 2020.

Search term	2 January 2020	12 May 2020	% change
Medical Dermatology
Acne	53	75	+22
Hand Eczema	37	53	+16
Rash	60	67	+7
Eczema	67	68	+1
Psoriasis	66	52	−14
Lesional Dermatology
Wart	39	64	+25
Mole	67	75	+8
Melanoma	48	53	+5
Skin Cancer	73	67	−6
Cosmetic Dermatology
Chemical Peel	57	76	+19
Lip Filler	46	33	−13
Botox	67	41	−16
Laser Hair Removal	71	54	−17
Hair Transplant	69	37	−32

Figure 1

Google Trends showing search frequency from 2 January 2020 to 12 May 2020 for common (a) medical, (b) lesional and (c) cosmetic dermatology conditions and procedures. Arrow indicates commencement of UK lockdown (23 March 2020).

Figure 2

Google Trends in ‘eczema’ and ‘Botox’ searches from 2 January 2020 to 12 May 2020. Arrow indicates commencement of UK lockdown (23 March 2020).

The relative stability in searches for other medical and lesional dermatology conditions suggests that lockdown or the pandemic did not affect patients’ perception of the relative importance to these conditions. As for cosmetic dermatology, there appeared to be a general downward trend in searches for most of the keywords, most markedly after the UK lockdown on 23 March 2020 (decrease ranging from −13% to −32%). Curiously, for ‘chemical peel’ there was a slight increase in relative number of searches during the surveyed period. This may be a function of the precise days on which the searches were undertaken, and/or because, of all the cosmetic dermatology procedures, this may be perceived to be the most accessible to self‐administration; furthermore, patients may be exploring the possibility of postprocedural ‘downtime’ during the lockdown. We also accept that our work is observational, our search terms are not exhaustive and we were limited by the parameters presented by Google Trends.

Nevertheless, our observations support the notion that during the national lockdown period, public interest in hand eczema and conditions for which self‐care is considered more possible (such as acne and warts) rose, whereas interest in most cosmetic dermatological procedures declined markedly. These findings may inform policymakers, medical educationalists and business modelling in the event of a future or re‐emergent pandemic or lockdown.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.