Google Trends in Bariatric Surgery: A Disconnect Between Public Interest and Surgery Performed.

Economists utilize Google Trends (GT) to predict present economic activity, a term called nowcasting. Here, GT was used to explore the relationship between current trends in public interest and rates of bariatric operations performed in the United States (US). Public interest search topics, limited to the US, from 2011 to 2017, including "bariatric surgery," "gastric bypass surgery," "sleeve gastrectomy," and "adjustable gastric band," were analyzed using GT. Relative search interest was compared between surgical type, with a subsequent comparison analysis to published bariatric surgery numbers in the US. The rate of sleeve gastrectomy increased from 19.8 to 74.3 percent (ptrend<0.001). The rate of gastric bypass and gastric band fell from 40.8 to 22.3 percent (ptrend<0.001) and 39.4 to 3.5 percent (ptrend<0.001), respectively. Relative search interest in sleeve gastrectomy rose from 9 to 33.8 percent. Relative interest in gastric bypass rose from 46.6 to 61.7 percent, and relative interest in gastric band fell from 44.4 to 9.8 percent. A comparison of trends between search proportions and operations performed demonstrated a significant difference in the trends for gastric bypass (p=0.01). There was no significant difference in trends for sleeve gastrectomy (p=0.99) or gastric band (p=0.15). There exists a disconnect between public interest and the current surgical environment. The reasons underlying this discrepancy are not fully elucidated and highlight an additional investigative opportunity to explore the causative factors driving these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]