Public interest in retinal detachment in the United States: a Google Trends analysis

Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RD) is a vision-threatening condition requiring timely diagnosis and treatment, yet population-level public interest and information-seeking behavior is difficult to assess using traditional utilization data alone. This study evaluated temporal and geographic patterns of public interest in retinal detachment in the United States and contextualized this interest relative to retina specialist availability.

In this retrospective observational study, we queried Google Trends for RD-related search terms in the United States from 2008 to 2025. Google Trends reports relative search volume (RSV) on a normalized scale from 0 to 100. We extracted annual and state-level values using a composite of diagnostic and surgical RD terms. We obtained state-level counts of vitreoretinal surgeons from the American Society of Retina Specialists database and calculated retina surgeon density per 100,000 population using 2025 U.S. Census estimates. We also calculated the Search-to-Surgeon Index as an exploratory ratio of state-level relative search volume to retina surgeon density. We evaluated associations between RSV, Search-to-Surgeon Index, population age structure, and time using the using the Mann-Kendall trend test with Sen's slope estimator and the Spearman correlation test.

From 2008 to 2025, retinal detachment-related relative search volume increased by 178%, with a significant temporal increasing trend (τ = 0.745, P < 0.001). Relative search volume declined sharply in April 2020. In 2025, state-level relative search volume ranged from 61 to 100 (median, 84). States with a higher proportion of residents aged 50 years and older demonstrated higher relative search volume (ρ = 0.56, P < 0.001). Retina surgeon density varied more than tenfold across states, ranging from 0.17 to 2.09 per 100,000 residents. Search-to-Surgeon index values ranged from 40 to 406 (median, 155), with the highest values observed in states with limited retina surgeon availability. Population age distribution was not significantly associated with Search-to-Surgeon index (ρ = -0.06, P > 0.10).

Public interest in retinal detachment has increased substantially over time and varies widely across U.S. states. Integrating Google Trends data with retina surgeon distribution highlights geographic mismatches between public interest and specialist availability. This exploratory framework may help identify regions with disproportionate public concern relative to local workforce capacity.