HPV and Genital Warts: Mapping Awareness Through Google Trends in the United States Trends
Main Article Content
Keywords
Human Papilloma Virus, Google Trends, vaccinations, National Immunization Survey, centers for disease control, CDC, Infectious disease dermatology
Abstract
Background: Human Papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted infection in the United States with an estimated 40% prevalence.
Methods: This study assessed Google Trends data for genital warts related search terms from 2004 to 2023. The latest Centers for Disease Control-reported National Immunization Survey for 2022 were compared to Google Trends data for patterns or correlations.
Results: Average annual searches for genital warts decreased by 73.7% from 2004 to 2023 with the largest reduction (-23.14%) occurring between 2019 and 2020. West Virginia had the highest twenty-year average searches for genital warts related search terms (94), while Utah was found to have the lowest. Minnesota, Massachusetts and Washington were reported on top ten states with the highest HPV vaccination coverage ( ≥ 1 dose) also were found on top ten states with the lowest twenty-year average Google Trend search inquiries for genital warts. Conversely, West Virginia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Mississippi were found to be on the top ten states with the lowest reported ≥ 1 HPV dose vaccination coverage and among top ten states with highest genital wart searches.
Conclusion: Google Trends data can help identify at-risk regions and guide efforts to improve HPV vaccination rates in the United States.
References
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