Oculofacial plastic surgery-related online search trends including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: The authors aim to characterize oculofacial plastic surgery-related online interest that may be useful in forecasting demand and in designing patient-directed online resources.

Methods

The authors queried Google Trends for over 100 oculofacial plastic surgery terms. The main outcome measure was the top 50 oculofacial plastic surgery-related search terms from 2004 to 2020. Secondary outcomes were trends, including seasonality, and search volume changes during the COVID-19 lockdown (March-May 2020) compared to 2018-2019. Terms were analyzed individually and in thematic categories; controlled against generic search terms to account for general internet traffic.

Results

Between 2004 and 2020, searches for oculofacial plastic surgery altogether increased, surpassing the rate of internet traffic growth. One thematic category - eyelid malpositions - decreased month-over-month. The top five terms were "face lift," "Bell's palsy," "puffy eyes," "dark circles under eyes," and "chalazion." Eyelid neoplasms searches peaked in summer (R2  = 0.880) whereas cosmetic (R2  = 0.862), symptoms (R 2 = 0.907), and surgeries (R 2 = 0.140) peaked in winter. Overall, oculofacial-related searches decreased during the COVID-19 lockdown, although thyroid eye disease interest increased compared to 2018 or 2019 (+68.6%; adj. p = .005). Oculofacial plastic surgery interest in 2020 was inversely correlated to "COVID-19" searches (r = -0.76, p < .001).

Conclusions

Oculofacial plastic surgery searches increased since 2004 at a pace greater than that ascribed to internet traffic growth. The most searched terms were "face lift," "Bell's palsy," "puffy eyes," "dark circles under eyes," and "chalazion." Almost all oculofacial-related searches decreased during the COVID-19 lockdown.