Lessons learned: Digital epidemiology of eosinophilic esophagitis and what Google Trends reveals

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic, immune-mediated disease whose incidence and prevalence have continued to rise, yet little is known about how public awareness has evolved alongside clinical progress. We used Google Trends, a freely available tool that indexes the relative popularity of search queries from 0 to 100, to examine interest in the terms 'eosinophilic esophagitis' and 'EoE' in the United States from January 2004 through December 2025, and to compare the disease term with searches for regulatory-approved EoE-relevant therapies (dupilumab/Dupixent, budesonide/Eohilia, and budesonide/Jorveza) in the United States and worldwide (English-language). Search interest for 'eosinophilic esophagitis' rose substantially across two decades (+2.97 points/year; P < 0.001), with segmented regression at clinical milestones showing significant slope changes at 2007, 2011, 2013, 2020, and 2024 (all P ≤ 0.04). Secondary analysis of the 'EoE' acronym corroborated these patterns, rising across the study period (+1.3 points/year; P < 0.001) with a final-year rise (+18.2 points/year). Searches for 'Dupixent' exceeded disease-term searches in both the United States and worldwide (English-language). Seasonal and monthly variation did not statistically differ. These observations illustrate how digital epidemiology has potential to serve as a low-cost barometer of disease awareness and information-seeking behavior. As patients increasingly turn from search engines to conversational artificial intelligence, these signals may evolve and further research is needed to define how digital epidemiology best be integrated with conventional epidemiologic data.