ArticleObesity surgery2024
Popularity of Surgical and Pharmacological Obesity Treatment Methods Searched by Google Users: the Retrospective Analysis of Google Trends Statistics in 2004-2022.
Article in Obesity surgery, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Pre-operative concerns and post-operative satisfaction: comparing attitudes toward bariatric surgery and medication intervention for weight loss on Reddit.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Article
- The Impact of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists on Hair: Beneficial Effects or Adverse Outcomes?American journal of clinical dermatology · 2026Review
- Evaluating the Mainstream Influence of Cardiothoracic Surgical Research: An Analysis of Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2024.Brazilian journal of cardiovascular surgery · 2026Article
- The role and challenges of plant extracts in obesity management.Molecular biology reports · 2025Review
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Obesity.Current obesity reports · 2025Review
- A retrospective evaluation of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in systemic lupus erythematosus patients.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- A Closer Look at the Dermatological Profile of GLP-1 Agonists.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The Role of GLP-1 Agonists in Esthetic Medicine: Exploring the Impact of Semaglutide on Body Contouring and Skin Health.Journal of cosmetic dermatology · 2025Review
- Online Search Trends Related to Bariatric Surgery and Their Relationship with Utilization in Australia.Obesity surgery · 2024Article
- An Assessment of Semaglutide Safety Based on Real World Data: From Popularity to Spontaneous Reporting in EudraVigilance Database.Biomedicines · 2024Article
- Predicting short-term thromboembolic risk following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass using supervised machine learning.World journal of gastrointestinal surgery · 2024Article
- Popularity of Surgical and Pharmacological Obesity Treatment Methods Searched by Google Users: the Retrospective Analysis of Google Trends Statistics in 2004-2022.Obesity surgery · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeMany individuals search for obesity treatment options on the Internet. We aimed to analyze the popularity of pharmacological and surgical obesity treatment methods searched by Google users. MATERIAL AND
methodsWe used Google Trends to identify topics representing the following: recommended surgical methods (n = 9), recommended pharmacological methods (n = 10), and not recommended pharmacological methods (n = 34). The data was generated for 2004-2022 and 2020-2022. Relative search volume (RSV) was adjusted using "Gastric bypass surgery" as a benchmark. We analyzed the geographical and temporal trends of the topics.
resultsIn 2004-2022, the topics representing recommended surgical methods numerically gained the most popularity among Google users, but in 2020-2022 the recommended drugs exceeded other obesity treatment methods. The most popular individual topics since 2004 were "flaxseed," "Spirulina," "Carnitine," "Bariatric surgery," and "Orlistat." The most dynamic increases of searches since 2004 were observed for "Sleeve gastrectomy," "Curcumin," "Psyllium," and "Bupropion/Naltrexon." Since 2018, topics representing GLP-1 analogs such as "Semaglutide" and "Saxenda" revealed exponential increases in RSV, causing that "Semaglutide" to become the fourth most popular topic in 2020-2022.
conclusionsGoogle users across the world were the most interested in topics representing bariatric surgery, but recently recommended drugs for the treatment of obesity gained the most attention. The most popular individual topics were dietary supplements with uncertain effects on weight loss.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.