key: cord-304183-zv3s7cjq
authors: Thirunavukarasu, Arun James
title: Evaluating the mainstream impact of ophthalmological research with Google Trends
date: 2020-11-01
journal: Eye (Lond)
DOI: 10.1038/s41433-020-01257-4
sha: 
doc_id: 304183
cord_uid: zv3s7cjq

nan

Google interest in ophthalmological conditions was greatest between 2004 and 2005, falling to a minimum around 2011 with a subsequent rise to the present day interrupted by a sharp drop in March 2020 ( Fig. 1) , likely due to disproportionate interest in the Covid-19 pandemic. In contrast, PubMed publications tended to grow steadily, with a drop in 2020 ( Fig. 1 ), attributable to both the pandemic and lack of four months' research relative to other years. A scatter plot relating the two variables ( Fig. 2 ) indicated weak positive correlation overall, with most points lying outside the 95% confidence intervals of the best-fit trend-line. No correlation was apparent within search terms. Correlation coefficients agreed with these deductions, with overall positive correlation (τ = 0.620, p = 1.35E−26) and no significant correlations (p > 0.05) within search terms.

The overall correlation between Google interest and PubMed publications indicates concordance between the interests of the scientific community and general public. However, lack of correlation within conditions suggests that ophthalmological research has little direct effect on laypeople's interests, which may instead be closer related to the prevalence of the respective conditions. Correlation could also be masked by the lack of normalisation of PubMed data: ophthalmology may not have kept up with inflation observed across the scientific literature over time. Further investigations could explore the effect on Google interest of high impact publications, or publication-inspired news pieces. Similar ophthalmological event analyses have previously been conducted, evaluating the effect of public health campaigns [3] , conjunctivitis epidemics [4] and Bono developing glaucoma [5] . 

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Conflict of interest The author declares no conflict of interest.Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
