Public perception and demand in kidney, prostate, and bladder cancer in China: Infodemiology study based on Baidu search index (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Cancer in the bladder, kidney, and prostate are the three primary genitourinary cancers that contributed to the global burden of disease (GBD) and were reported with still increased morbidity and mortality both globally and in mainland China. Though understanding patients' and families' cancer burden was critical, the public awareness of these cancers is mainly limited to their financial cost and is yet to be further revealed comprehensively. OBJECTIVE To examine the online search trend and users' demand for bladder, kidney, and prostate cancers on a national and regional scale and reveal the managing and coping implications of needs from mainland China's dominant major search engine. METHODS The Baidu Index was queried using the bladder, kidney, and prostate cancers-related terms for 2011.01–2023.08. The search volume for each term was recorded to analyze the search trend and demographic distributions. For user interest, the data of demand graph and trend data were collected and analyzed. RESULTS Three search topics were identified with the 39 available search keywords. The total BSI for all three cancer topics was 43,643,453. The overall search APC was 15.2% (p < 0.05) in 2011-2015; -2.8% in 2015-2021, 2021-2023 8.9% with an Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC) of 4.9%. For bladder cancer, the APC was 8.3% (p < 0.05) in 2011-2019, -11.7% in 2019-2021 and 7.4% in 2021-2023, with an AAPC of 2.8%. For Kidney cancer, the APC was 8.0% (p < 0.05) in 2011-2019, -9.6% in 2019-2021 and 11.4% in 2021-2023, with an AAPC of 3.9%. For prostate, the APC was 17.7% (p < 0.05) in 2011-2015, -3.1% in 2015-2020, and 10.4% in 2021-2023 with an AAPC of 6.8% (p < 0.05). The age distribution of the population of three cancer topics searching topics varies in each topic. Geographically, the search for cancer was led by people from East China, who made up around 30% of each cancer search query. For user demand, the total BSI for these relevant user demand terms was 676,526,998, accounting for only 15.74% (676,526,998/2,570,697,380) of the cancer request. CONCLUSIONS The online search and demand for genitourinary cancer are rising. The information demand of users is related to the regional economic level. Cancer treatment decision-making is potentially family-shared. With these internet search data, medical professionals could be more familiar with public interests and concerns and provide more reliable healthcare services. CLINICALTRIAL Not applicable