google trends analysis of otologic symptom searches following covid-19

Introduction:covid-19 infection was accompanied by otologic symptoms, a pattern that was captured early by google trends. the objective of this study is to investigate searches for otologic symptoms and identify correlations with the pandemic onset.materials and methods:search interest for otologic symptoms was gathered using google trends from two years before and two years following the pandemic start date. a two-tailed mann-whitney u test was used to identify significant changes and effect size.results:in total, search interest for 14 terms was collected, with significant changes identified in 11. six terms showed increased search interest, with the most significant rises observed for headache (r=0.589, p<0.001), dizziness (r=0.554, p<0.001), and tinnitus (r=0.410, p<0.001). search interest decreased for five terms, with the most notable declines found in searches for migraine headache (r=0.35, p<0.001) and phonophobia (r=0.22, p=0.002). no significant changes were seen in ear pressure (p=0.142), neck pain (p=0.935), and sudden hearing loss (p=0.863) searches.conclusion:covid-19 infection is often accompanied otologic symptoms and holds a diagnostic role. fluctuating search interest may be attributed to a true increase in cases, media trends, or people’s desires to stay informed. google trends robustly captured trends in search interest and presented itself as a valuable epidemiological tool.