Association Between Diabetes Prevalence and Glycemic Index Search Interest

Abstract

Objectives: To compare search interest in glycemic index information between countries with varying diabetes prevalence to investigate whether national diabetes prevalence is associated with public interest in blood sugar management. Background: Glycemic index (GI) measures how rapidly food can raise blood sugar, and higher-GI diets are associated with an increased risk of diabetes. In Turkey, the U.S., and Japan, people rely on internet searches for health information. While the relationship between GI and diabetes is established in medical literature, its reflection in public awareness is less understood. Analyzing GI-related search interest across countries can reveal associations between national diabetes prevalence and interest in blood sugar management, facilitating effective communication to prevent diabetes. Methods: I utilized Google Trends data to investigate how people living in Turkey, the United States, and Japan search for diabetes-management information by entering the search term “glycemic index.” I restricted the results to web-search queries conducted in Turkey, the United States, and Japan between July 2nd, 2021, and July 1st, 2026. Then, I exported the weekly relative interest scores of web-search queries including the search term “glycemic index” in CSV format for trend analysis. Results: Over the 52-week period, web searches including “glycemic index” recorded the highest relative search interest in the United States (Mean = 59.6, SD = 14.6). Search interest in Turkey followed with a mean of 20.8 (SD = 20.8). Japan displayed the lowest search interest of the term (Mean = 12.0, SD = 23.2). Conclusions: There is a significant difference in search interest for GI-related terms between the countries. The U.S. showed the greatest search interest despite having a lower diabetes prevalence than Turkey which could indicate that there are factors other than disease prevalence that influence health information-seeking.