An examination of the relation between google trends data and health issues mentioned in the three most watched TV series in the USA

Objective: 69.6% of Internet users in the world access the health information from Internet. In recent years, Internet plays an important role for accessing health information, the source that provokes the search of health information is also very important. In this study, based on presence of large number of cases which were studied in the literature, the relationship between the health issues and Google Trends was examined for the three most popular TV series in the United States of America. Thus, the effect of health issues which were mentioned in TV series, on creating awareness was aimed to be determined. Method: The search data of the health issues mentioned in the TV series were obtained through Google Trends, which is an free service by Googleto obtain search trends. For detection of abnormal peaks in Google Trends data, exponential smoothing method was used with weighted moving average method. With this method, more weight is given to to more recent periods. For the analysis of the series, wessa.net, which provides online use of exponential smothing method was used. Results: Increasing search trends for some of the health issues which were mentioned in TV series was observed, but no increasing trend was observed for most of the health issues. According to the results of the analysis, the health issues mentioned in the TV series may show significant increase with specific strategies. When these strategies will be determined, a special attention must be given on the genre of the TV series, the health issues which will be discussed, and the terminology which will be used. Conclusion: As a result of the present study, it is proposed that, TV series can be used as an effective tool to create awareness on health issues on the community with proper strategies. Key words: Google Trends, TV series, Exponential Smoothing, Health