An analysis of Google Trends following athletic injuries by high profile NBA players during the 2019 NBA finals - De Gruyter
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J Osteopath Med 2021; aop
Musculoskeletal Medicine and Pain Original Article
Jay C. Thompson*, DO, Christopher M. Price, DO, Jake X. Checketts, DO, Chad Hanson, DO,
Trevor Torgerson, BS, Micah Hartwell, PhD and Matt B. Vassar, PhD
An analysis of Google Trends following athletic
injuries by high profile NBA players during the
2019 NBA finals
https://doi.org/10.1515/jom-2020-0269 media can provide a platform for patient education in a
Received October 15, 2020; accepted February 4, 2021; limited timeframe. By increasing patient awareness and
published online March 12, 2021 knowledge regarding athletic injuries, social media can
expand the pool of potential patients for physicians and
Abstract
surgeons.
Context: Injuries are common among high profile players Keywords: basketball; injury; NBA; social media.
in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and could
provide an opportunity for physicians to provide accurate Basketball is among the most popular team sports in the
sports injury information and reliable rehabilitation data to world, with an estimated 2.2 billion fans worldwide [1].
the general public in the immediate aftermath. Men’s collegiate basketball injuries occur at a rate of 8.5 per
Objectives: To evaluate social media trends to investigate 1,000 athlete exposures, ranking basketball sixth among
public interest in athletic injuries in the NBA and to eval- the 25 collegiate championship sports with the highest
uate the length of maintained interest in these injuries. injury rates [2]. This accounts for approximately 16,100
Methods: The Google Trends tool was used to analyze basketball injuries at the collegiate level and an additional
search data around two high profile players—Kevin Durant 174,000 injuries at the high school level annually [3, 4].
and Klay Thompson—who suffered injuries during the 2019 These common injuries are brought to the public’s atten-
NBA Finals. The results were compared to the expected
tion when they happen to high profile players in the Na-
search forecast derived from an autoregressive integrated
tional Basketball Association (NBA). Numerous studies
moving algorithm model.
have demonstrated positive prevention strategies for
Results: Both players were associated with a mean in-
common basketball injuries [3–7]. Accurate sports injury
crease of 1,052.4% (standard deviation [SD], 703.96%) in
information and reliable rehabilitation data are pertinent
relative search volumes for terms related to their injuries.
when disseminating health information to the general
This data showed a significant increase in search engine
public.
activity related to injuries associated with NBA players in
Using information found online, the general public
the first 6.13 days (SD, 3.14 days) following the injuries,
can learn about basketball related injuries suffered by high
marking a substantial timeframe for public engagement.
profile NBA players. We performed a Google Trends anal-
Conclusions: Search traffic information may be ben-
eficial to the sports medicine community, as social ysis following injuries sustained by Kevin Durant and Klay
Thompson during the 2019 NBA Finals in an attempt to
answer the following questions: (1) is there public interest
*Corresponding author: Jay C. Thompson, DO, Department of in learning about the athletic injuries sustained by NBA
Orthopedic Surgery in Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University Medical
players?; and (2) for how long after an NBA player sustains
Center, 744 West 9th Street, Tulsa, OK 74127, USA,
E-mail: jay.thompson@okstate.edu an injury does it remain of interest to the general public? By
Christopher M. Price, DO, Trevor Torgerson, BS, Micah Hartwell, PhD investigating these questions, we hope to share informa-
and Matt B. Vassar, PhD, Department of Institutional Research in tion that will assist physicians and surgeons in better
Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, distributing educational material to the public regarding
Tulsa, OK, USA
athletic injuries through published editorials or social
Jake X. Checketts, DO and Chad Hanson, DO, Department of
Orthopedic Surgery in Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University Medical media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook based on
Center, Tulsa, OK, USA the best available evidence.
Open Access. © 2021 Jay C. Thompson et al., published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.
2 Thompson et al.: Google Trends following athletic injuries
Table : Orthopedic related search interest following NBA injuries.
NBA athlete Search term Difference in RSV and forecasted Percent change between Days greater than
search volume (% CI) actual and expected forecasted search volume
Kevin Durant What happened to Kevin Durant . (.–.) ,.
Achilles tendon repair . (.–.) .
Achilles rehab . (.–.) .
Achilles recoverya NA NA NA
Achilles teara NA NA NA
Klay Thompson What happened to Klay Thompson . (.–.) ,.
ACL injury . (.–.) .
ACL reconstruction . (.–.) .
ACL tear . (.–.) ,.
ACL rehab . (.–.) .
a
Terms did not yield adequate search interest and were excluded. ACL, anterior cruciate ligament; CI, confidence interval; NA, not applicable;
NBA, National Basketball Association; RSV, relative search volume.
Methods Given the proximity of the injuries, we collected RSV data for March 1,
2019, through September 1, 2019. For Kevin Durant’s injury, the
following search phrases were evaluated: “what happened to Kevin
Google Trends Durant,” “Achilles recovery,” “Achilles tear,” “Achilles tendon
repair,” and “Achilles rehab.” For Klay Thompson’s injury, the
Google Trends (https://trends.google.com/trends/) is a web-based following search phrases were evaluated: “what happened to Klay
platform that collects search engine query data and displays it as Thompson,” “anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction,” “ACL tear,”
relative search volume (RSV) over time—a proportional search volume “ACL recovery,” and “ACL rehab.”
score with the highest number of searches within a given time interval
(100%) set as the denominator. Google Trends excludes all special
characters and duplicate searches from the same user over a short
Statistical analysis
amount of time to improve data accuracy. Google Trends search terms
made by “very few” people are also excluded and given the distinction We performed an observational comparison of graphical interpretations
of 0 [8]. On October 22, 2019, an author (T.T.) searched Google Trends of the RSV data. A constructed autoregressive integrated moving al-
for terms and phrases related to the injuries of two professional gorithm (ARIMA) [11] model was used to compare the RSV extracted
basketball players, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, suffered during from Google Trends to the predicted search volumes of the injury-
the 2019 NBA Finals. related terms had the athletes not suffered injuries. ARIMA modeling
was performed using R version 3.6.1 (R Foundation) and all other an-
alyses were completed using Stata 15.1 (STATA Corp., LLC). Analyses
Player injuries performed on data projections included the difference between the
actual and forecasted RSV, the percent increase in RSV immediately
Kevin Durant ruptured his Achilles tendon on June 10, 2019, during after the injury, the number of days the actual search volume was higher
Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals [9]. Klay Thompson tore his anterior than the forecasted search volume, and the mean percent increase over
cruciate ligament (ACL) on June 13, 2019, in the following game [10]. those days for each term (Table 1).
Figure 1: Google Trends results for Kevin
Durant related search terms.Thompson et al.: Google Trends following athletic injuries 3
Figure 2: Google Trends results for Klay
Thompson related search terms.
Results found an increase in calls made to the national sexual as-
sault hotline following the airing of the hotline’s number in
Of the 10 search terms in the study, two terms (“Achilles a Grey’s Anatomy episode. These previous publications are
tear” and “Achilles recovery”) did not yield adequate in- intriguing, as they provide templates for how physicians
terest and were excluded. All included search terms and surgeons can use media to engage and educate
showed a significant increase in RSV, with peak increase in members of the public in a variety of medical fields. Our
RSV occurring the day after the injuries were sustained results build upon these previously published studies to
(Figures 1 and 2). All search terms were noted to have an demonstrate the impact that social media platforms can
increase over the forecasted search volume the day after have to disseminate medical information.
the players were injured, with a mean percent change of Based on our data, NBA player injuries draw substantial
1,052.4% (standard deviation [SD], 703.96%) the day after interest from the general population. Capitalizing on this
the injury. The mean number of days for which the search high interest time, practitioners could consider building
volume was higher than the forecasted search volume was educational platforms focused on common basketball in-
6.1 days (SD, 3.14 days). juries. Such platforms could be used by physicians and
surgeons to increase optimal outcomes following basketball
injuries by aiming for earlier diagnosis, quicker injury re-
Discussion covery, and safer return to play. Specifically, an increase in
readily available information regarding basketball injuries
The data demonstrate an increase in Google search interest and recovery could help set appropriate expectations to
surrounding the injuries of Kevin Durant and Klay Thomp- young athletes who sustain these injuries.
son during the 2019 NBA Finals. The results demonstrate a
sustained elevation of Google search interest starting on the
first day postinjury through 6.1 days following the sentinel Limitations
event. These results provide a sense of the “opportunity
window” for orthopedic, sports medicine, and musculo- This study focused on a single data source, Google Trends.
skeletal practitioners to consider disseminating marketing Furthermore, the data collected for Google Trends only
and patient education materials regarding athletic injuries. pertains to Google searches and does not distinguish be-
Knowledge regarding the prevention, treatment, and reha- tween the intent of searches. For example, it is impossible to
bilitation of athletic injuries could be employed in a limited determine whether the searches were for educational or
timeframe just after a basketball injury to reach the greatest medical purposes, or if Internet users were simply trying to
number of potential patients. view the injury. The data are also limited by the number and
Google Trends and social media analyses have been specific terms used, as a different set of terms may have
used in publications in other medical fields. For example, yielded contrasting results to the data reported here.
in the context of “selfie” photos and skin cancer preven- Another limitation is that the study only included two in-
tion, Noar et al. [12] revealed that an individual’s social juries to two high profile NBA athletes who required surgery;
media post can significantly increase public engagement of these injuries might hold a greater interest compared
healthcare related topics. Furthermore, Torgerson et al. [13] with other nonoperative injuries. This data cannot be4 Thompson et al.: Google Trends following athletic injuries
extrapolated to include all NBA players or collegiate athletes 3. Clifton DR, Onate JA, Hertel J, Pierpoint LA, Currie DW,
as they may not have such broad social media influence. Wasserman EB, et al. The first decade of web-based sports injury
surveillance: descriptive epidemiology of injuries in US high
school Boys’ basketball (2005–2006 through 2013–2014) and
National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Basketball (2004–
Conclusions 2005 through 2013–2014). J Athl Train 2018;53:1025–36.
4. Clifton DR, Hertel J, Onate JA, Currie DW, Pierpoint LA,
Our limited data suggested that the public is interested in Wasserman EB, et al. The first decade of web-based sports injury
the injuries sustained by NBA players as seen through surveillance: descriptive epidemiology of injuries in US high
school Girls’ basketball (2005–2006 through 2013–2014) and
elevated RSV of Google search terms in the time following
National Collegiate Athletic Association Women’s Basketball
the injury of two high profile athletes. This may present a (2004–2005 through 2013–2014). J Athl Train 2018;53:1037–48.
time limited opportunity for heightened education efforts 5. Emery CA, Meeuwisse WH, McAllister J. A prevention strategy to
around orthopedic injury prevention, diagnosis, treat- reduce the incidence of injury in high school basketball: a
ment, and return to play. cluster randomized controlled trial. Clin J Sport Med 2006;16:
182–3.
6. Bolotin A, Bakayev V. Efficacy of using isometric exercises to
Research funding: None reported.
prevent basketball injuries. J Phys Educ Sport 2016;16:1177.
Author contributions: Mr. Torgerson and Drs Hartwell, 7. Weiss KJ, Allen SV, McGuigan MR, Whatman CS. The relationship
Checketts, Vassar, and Price provided substantial between training load and injury in Men’s professional
contributions to conception and design, acquisition of basketball. Int J Sports Physiol Perform 2017;12:1238–42.
data, or analysis and interpretation of data; Drs Thompson, 8. Google News Initiative. Google news initiative training center.
Available from: https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/training/
Price, Hanson, and Checketts drafted the article or revised
lesson/4876819719258112?image=trends&tool=Google%
it critically for important intellectual content; all authors 20Trends [Accessed 24 Oct 2019].
gave final approval of the version of the article to be 9. National Basketball Association. Kevin Durant confirms he
published; and all authors agree to be accountable for all suffered ruptured right Achilles. Available from: https://www.
aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the nba.com/article/2019/06/12/warriors-durant-achilles-injury-
update [Accessed 15 June 2020].
accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are
10. National Basketball Association. Klay Thompson tears ACL in
appropriately investigated and resolved.
game 6 of finals. Available from: https://www.nba.com/
Competing interests: None reported. article/2019/06/13/thompson-tears-ACL [Accessed 15 June
2020].
11. Hyndman RJ, Khandakar Y. Automatic time series for forecasting:
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