RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Seasonality of Ankle Swelling: Population Symptom Reporting Using Google Trends
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 356
OP 358
DO 10.1370/afm.1953
VO 14
IS 4
A1 Liu, Fangwei
A1 Allan, G. Michael
A1 Korownyk, Christina
A1 Kolber, Michael
A1 Flook, Nigel
A1 Sternberg, Harvey
A1 Garrison, Scott
YR 2016
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/14/4/356.abstract
AB In our experience, complaints of ankle swelling are more common in summer, typically from patients with no obvious cardiovascular disease. Surprisingly, this observation has never been reported. To objectively establish this phenomenon, we sought evidence of seasonality in the public’s Internet searches for ankle swelling. Our data, obtained from Google Trends, consisted of all related Google searches in the United States from January 4, 2004, to January 26, 2016. Consistent with our expectations and confirmed by similar data for Australia, Internet searches for information on ankle swelling are highly seasonal (highest in midsummer), with seasonality explaining 86% of search volume variability.