The most Googled health conditions around the world

James McCay

Dec 14, 2023

The internet has changed the world. It provides oodles of information at our fingertips – and medical knowledge is no exception. It’s no surprise then, that search engines have become one of the first places we turn to when we suffer an illness.

“Dr Google” has become one of the primary sources of info on medical conditions and symptoms, so what are people searching for the most?

As experts in health insurance and helping Australians to get great medical care, we dived into the Google Trends data to find the top three most searched medical conditions for 155 countries across the planet. Here are the results.

Top three most searched health conditions in the world

Other top conditions include HIV, blood pressure, diarrhea, malaria and headaches. The table below lists the top 35 conditions that turned up in the top three results for 155 countries, and the number of countries that searched for each condition in their top three.

The most-searched health conditions by number of countries

CONDITION

TOTAL COUNT

Diabetes

57

Cancer

50

Pain

38

HIV

36

Blood pressure

24

Diarrhea

21

Malaria

18

Headache

16

Herpes

16

Influenza

15

Dengue fever

11

Infection

10

COVID-19

10

Allergies

9

Fever

9

Heart palpitations

9

Cough

8

Hyperthyroidism

7

IBS

7

Sinus headache

7

Rhinorrhoea

6

Hepatitis

5

Physical therapy

4

Pneumonia

4

Anaemia

3

Arthritis

3

Lupus

3

Pica (eating disorder)

3

Sore throat

3

Streptococcus

3

Tuberculosis

3

Fructose malabsorption

2

Haemorrhoids

2

Hypertension

2

Lichen simplex chronicus

2

To view the top three results in each country, click here.

Understanding health insurance coverage for specific health conditions

Private health insurance can empower you with greater choice when it comes to your medical care. It can provide peace of mind by helping you avoid public waitlists and by making out of hospital services, such as physiotherapy, more affordable.

However, it’s important to know what’s included on your insurance policy. In Australia, there are two types of health insurance – hospital cover for medically necessary inpatient surgeries and treatments, and extras cover for treatment outside of hospital, such as physiotherapy and remedial massage.

Different conditions and their related hospital treatments are organised into clinical categories. There are then set levels of hospital insurance which each include a specific set of categories, with higher levels of cover including a wider range.

Compare the Market’s Head of Health Insurance, Lana Hambilton, states it’s crucial to navigate these clinical categories carefully, as it isn’t always straightforward.

“Sometimes a health condition may require treatment from multiple different clinical categories. Diabetes is an example of this. Hospital policies can include ‘Diabetes Management’, but ‘Insulin Pumps’ aren’t included in this and are instead listed as their own separate category,” Hambilton says.

“It’s also worth considering whether you could benefit from a combined hospital and extras policy. This will enable you to claim a benefit on relevant treatment both in and out of the hospital. For example, some health funds will pay a benefit towards diabetes support programs, blood glucose monitors, or swimming lessons if approved by a health professional to manage diabetes.”

Having a policy that includes hospital and extras can also be beneficial for specific conditions and treatments, including cancer and pain, two of the most commonly Googled health conditions. With cancer, some extras policies in Australia include skin cancer screening, while hospital cover can pay a benefit towards inpatient cancer treatment like chemotherapy.

Likewise with pain, there are different hospital treatments that can be included (depending on the cause of the pain), while extras cover can pay benefits for relevant treatment like physiotherapy or remedial massage.

“It’s important to make sure you get the coverage you need when purchasing health insurance. Our health insurance experts help Australians navigate the private health insurance space every day. This way, people are equipped with the cover that matters to them,” says Hambilton.

“Australians wanting advice around what type of policy to get can call our experts for advice.”

Methodology and Resources

Methodology

Using Google Trends and viewing the top results under the category “health conditions”, we found the top three results across the past 12 months for 155 nations. Terms that included the word “pain” were combined together (such as “back pain” and “abdominal pain”. We then counted the number of times each condition appeared in the top three results. Where a language other than English was used, this language was then translated into English for consistency. Data was gathered on 03/11/23.

References:

  1. Diabetes. World Health Organization. 2023.
  2. Cancer. World Health Organization. 2023.
  3. What is Pain? Painaustralia. 2020.