Google searches do not correlate with melanoma incidence in majority English speaking countries.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31304324.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41746-018-0050-4 and PMC identifier 6550200.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Recent reports have suggested that internet search behaviour may be a valuable tool to estimate melanoma incidence and mortality. Previous studies have used incorrect statistical methods, were focussed on the United States and/or did not use non-cancer control search terms to provide a context for interpreting the effects seen with the cancer-related terms. Using more robust statistical methods we found that no cancer search terms were significantly, or strongly correlated with melanoma incidence in 6 countries.