Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction/Aim: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the long-term impact of the diabetes awareness day in Greece (in 2016-2023), which is organized every year in November, by examining the relevant local internet searches.

Materials/Methods: We collected monthly data with Google Trends, exclusively from Greece, on relevant [online] search volumes (RSVs), with keywords "diabetes" (study group; in medical/scientific and lay terms, in Greek and in English) and "breast cancer" (control group - in Greek). The data were collected and analyzed in three periods: 2016-2019 (period A), 2020-2021 (COVID-19 period, period B), 2022-2023 (period C; Google Trends implemented a major change in the algorithms to calculate RSVs on January 1, 2022). RSVs for diabetes and breast cancer were compared by month (Kruskal-Wallis test). In addition, RSVs for diabetes were compared with those for breast cancer and were also assessed for longitudinal trends using the Sign test and Spearman’s correlation analysis, respectively (statistical significance was set at P<0.05).

Results: In period A, searches for diabetes-related terms outnumbered those for breast cancer, but with no differentiation in months with corresponding days of awareness for the diseases. Searches for "[blood] sugar" and "breast cancer" increased with time. In period B, searches for diabetes terms outnumbered those for breast cancer (except for "[blood] sugar"). Months with disease awareness days had more searches compared to other months. Searches for "diabetes" showed a downward trend. In period C, searches for diabetes terms outnumbered those for breast cancer. The months with diabetes awareness days showed more searches compared to other months and showed an increasing phase. Overall, of the diabetes terms, searches for "[blood] sugar" stood out for their predominance over the other terms combined with their increasing trend.

Discussion/Conclusions: Diabetes was more popular in online searches than breast cancer and interest in it online, with the exception of the Covid-19 period, had an increasing trend in Greece. Based on these results, the effectiveness of the diabetes day is judged positively, in spite of critics of such actions. The trend of the lay search term "[blood] sugar" could be attributed to the doubling of the percentage of people over 65 years of age in the country accessing the Internet in the last decade. In addition, it is important to note that the study’s reliance on internet searches and the potential influence of other factors on search trends may introduce limitations.