Louisiana’s Burning Health Questions: What’s Trending on Google?

If you don't count naked people, health concerns are one of the most common reasons people refer to the internet.  So, it only stands to reason that people in different areas of the country would be searching for different types of health information.

I'm sure people in Louisiana aren't going to search "How to treat frostbite."  Just as people in Maine probably aren't Googling "how to treat mosquito bites,"  at least not as many as around here!

Men probably won't be asking "What are the symptoms of a urinary tract infection?" And women probably won't be asking "Best treatments for ED,"  well... wait...

A new study in RegisteredNursing.org reveals some of the top Health Related Google searches, including searches broken down by state.

Key Findings

According to the study, top Google searches nationwide:

• "Flu symptoms," "diabetes symptoms," and "ADHD symptoms" are the most searched health terms in the nation.
• Searches about the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), urinary tract infections, and menopause symptoms were increasingly popular from February 2022 to February 2023.
• Since February 2022, searches about allergy symptoms and headaches have been decreasingly popular.

Most Popular Searches by State

As I mentioned earlier, different states, and different areas of the country would naturally have different health concerns.  Although there are 50 states, there weren't necessarily 50 topics.  The study narrowed down the most searched health concerns to 13 topics.  These included ADHD, allergies, anxiety, blood pressure, calorie consumption, concussions, depression, diabetes, flu, heart attacks, kidney stones, RSV, and UTI.

The most common search in Louisiana was related to flu symptoms. In fact, flu symptoms was one of the highest ranking searches nationwide, popular in 14 states.

The map below gives a breakdown of top health concerns in all 50 states.