Public interest trends in regenerative injections for knee osteoarthritis: A 10-year Google Trends analysis

This study aimed to determine public interest in intra-articular injection treatments for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) using Google Trends data. Relative search volumes (RSVs) for platelet-rich plasma (PRP), hyaluronic acid (HA), and stem cell treatments used in KOA treatment were analyzed using Google Trends data collected over the past decade (2015-2025). The annual search volume changes for each treatment were assessed using polynomial regression analysis. A subgroup analysis was performed based on the changes caused by COVID-19. The seasonal search trends were evaluated using the autoregressive integrated moving average model. Over the last 10 years, interest in the use of intra-articular injections for the treatment of KOA has increased. This increase was most pronounced in PRP. Although HA had a lower RSV than the other treatments, its trend toward a moderate increase was observed. Finally, although stem cells were the most common treatment between 2015 and 2020, their use has decreased in recent years. An increasing RSV trend was observed for PRP and HA over the past decade (R2 = 0.869, β = 7.364, P < .001; R2 = 0.880, β = 2.670, P < .001, respectively). Stem cells were the most common treatment between 2015 and 2020. They exhibited a decreasing trend in 2020 and beyond (R2 = 0.103, β = -1.002, P = .355). Seasonal analyses revealed no statistically significant differences in the number of searches across seasons. A dramatic decrease in the number of searches occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. This decline is expected to revert to an increasing trend by 2022.