Objective:

To analyze the temporary trends of the patterns of search for information about the home health care service in Spain through Google from 2004 to the present day.

Method:

Cross-sectional descriptive study. The data were obtained from the direct consultation of the “Google Trends” tool for Spain. Search topic ‘home health care service’. Date of consultation 12 jan 2019.

Results:

The search trend obtained presented a graph with slightly decreasing progression and adjustment to an exponential model (R2 = 0.06; p < 0.001). Separating by period it was obtained, at the 1st epoch, a decreasing linear model (R2 = 0.42; p < 0.001) and later in the 2nd epoch a growing exponential model (R2 = 0.57; p < 0.001), there are differences between the 1st and the 2nd epoch / period to study: 38.57 versus 29.60 (t = 3.86; p < 0,001).

Conclusion:

The evolution of the RSV that was obtained is likely due to a change of social concern and is linked to the swings of information on home health care services in Spain. Future research should corroborate these findings as it is still a hypothesis that the current study is not in a position to clear. In addition, these new studies may or may not confirm the usefulness and limitations of Google Trends in monitoring the need for information about population health.

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