Infodemiology of cluster headache seasonality: A proof of concept by a Google Trends analysis.

Source: Headache 2023 Jan 18; . doi: 10.1111/head.14444Authors: Silvestro M, Orologio I, Tartaglione L, Sozio P, Siciliano M, Trojsi F, Tessitore A, Tedeschi G, Russo A

Cluster headache is commonly reported to follow an annual pattern with a peak in the spring and a second peak in autumn. Patients with headache frequently use search engines, such as Google, to look for terms related to their disease, creating trend data that can be analyzed with Google Trends. Indeed, Google Trends has been used for surveillance studies and can provide indirect estimates of the burden of diseases and symptoms. The present cross-sectional study investigated the seasonality of searches for “cluster headache” in the northern and southern hemispheres using 10 years of Google Trends data.

Pubmed ID: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36651518?dopt=Abstract