Cancer awareness across borders: a comparative study of internet search trends for breast and prostate cancer in Europe and Turkey

ObjectivesThe governments and private organizations strongly support cancer awareness campaigns. It remains unknown whether the campaigns during the awareness months have the same effect in every country. This study aims to compare the impact of awareness campaigns conducted in October for breast cancer and September for prostate cancer on internet search trends among the most populous European countries and Turkey. The research is framed within the context of comparing awareness campaign effects between countries for the first time.Material and methodUtilizing Google Trends data from 2018 to 2022, we collected search term data for breast and prostate cancer in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Turkey. Search volumes were standardized based on each country's population and internet user rates. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to assess the influence of awareness campaigns on internet search volumes.ResultsThe MANOVA results indicated that the awareness campaigns had a significant impact on internet search volumes for breast and prostate cancer. The campaigns were found to be statistically significant in Italy, France, United Kingdom for breast cancer. And also, the internet search volumes of Italy, France, and Germany increased statistically significant for prostate cancer.ConclusionThe internet search data of Turkey, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain were analyzed, revealing that both Italy and France responded positively to awareness campaigns for both breast and prostate cancer, resulting in increased awareness. These findings can serve as a guiding framework for developing effective strategies to enhance cancer awareness.