Abstract
PURPOSE: Disease-specific health awareness (HA) campaigns are a crucial opportunity to improve patient education and ideally outcomes. Our study aimed to understand the impact of genitourinary HA months on engaging public search interests in the United States of America. METHODS: We utilized Google Trends to examine public interest in genitourinary conditions during monthly awareness campaigns over 19 years (2004-2022). The relative search volume (RSV) differences between 2004 and 2022 for each term were examined using the Wilcox Signed-Ranked test, while HA months were compared to those of non-HA (NHA) months using Mann-Whitney U-test. Terms were categorized as oncological or benign. Regressions were used to examine differences between search terms in both categories. RESULTS: The median RSV, for the calendar year, increased significantly for "kidney stone" (+53.5; P < 0.0001), "Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia" (+24.5; P < 0.001), and "erectile dysfunction" (+21.5; P ≤ 0.01). Furthermore, the median HA-RSV increased significantly between 2004 and 2022 for "kidney stone" (+57, P < 0.001) and "Erectile dysfunction" (+20; P < 0.01). There were no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) between HA-RSV and NHA-RSV for any search terms. Oncologic diseases had a higher median RSV (69 [interquartile ranges (IQR): 58-76]) compared to benign diseases (46 [IQR: 35-55.25]) (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Public health interest in select terms increased over time. HA months did not significantly affect public interest. Oncologic diseases had higher RSV compared to benign diseases. Research is critical to improve campaign methodology inside and outside HA months for increased public health engagement.