Abstract

Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly decreased the provision of UK bariatric surgery. We hypothesised that Internet searches for bariatric surgery might have increased during COVID. This study evaluated the impact of COVID on Internet searches for bariatric surgery in the UK population.

Materials and methods: A Google Trends data search using search topics: ‘gastric bypass surgery’, ‘sleeve gastrectomy’ ‘adjustable gastric band’ and ‘gastric balloon’ was performed. Relative Search Volume (RSV) indices were reported from March 2017 to March 2022. Mean RSV pre-COVID (March 2017-March 2020) and during COVID (March 2020-March 2022) were compared. ANOVA was performed to determine the impact of COVID on RSV

Results: Pre-COVID, gastric bypass surgery was most searched, whilst during COVID, sleeve gastrectomy became most commonly searched. ANOVA analysis revealed a significant increase in searches during COVID for sleeve gastrectomy (20.4% pre-COVID vs. 47.2% during COVID; p<0.001), gastric bypass surgery (25.4% vs. 30.7%; p<0.001) and gastric balloon (8.4% vs. 12.0%; p<0.001) but not adjustable gastric band (38.7% vs. 37.8%; p=0.350). 

Conclusion: During the pandemic there was a significant increase in Internet searches for bariatric surgery, likely reflecting lack of availability of bariatric surgery during this time.

Keywords: Bariatric and metabolic surgery; Google trend; Public perception; Relative search volume; COVID-19 and obesity