Investigating trends in interest for benign prostatic hyperplasia surgery options using Google Trends.

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Digital Health Analytics

Background:

• Assessing patient interest in surgical options for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is complex.
• Understanding public perception of different BPH surgical procedures is crucial for healthcare providers and industry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze public interest trends for BPH surgeries suitable for prostate volumes less than 80 cc using Google Trends.
• To rank the relative public search interest for key BPH surgical interventions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Google Trends to query search interest for five distinct BPH surgical procedures.
• Analyzed and ranked the search volume data to determine relative public interest.

Main Results:

• The final ranking of public search interest was: Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP), UroLift, Rezum, Aquablation, and Greenlight laser therapy.
• TURP demonstrated the highest search interest among the analyzed BPH surgeries.

Conclusions:

• Google Trends is a valuable tool for assessing and understanding public interest trends in BPH surgical options.
• Insights from search trends can inform patient education and healthcare strategy for BPH management.