Is “Movember” an Effective Prostate Cancer Awareness Campaign Beyond the English Language? Insights From Google Trends Among Spanish Speakers

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the impact of the “Movember” awareness campaign (men’s health campaign that takes place every November) on internet search trends for information online about prostate cancer and to compare the results with those for “Pinktober” (the breast cancer awareness campaign that takes place in October) in the Spanish language as an indirect measure of its effectiveness. Methods Google Trends was used to evaluate the monthly relative search volumes (RSV) of the terms “cáncer de próstata” (prostate cancer), “cáncer de mama” (breast cancer), and “Movember” from January 2009 to December 2019 both in Spain and worldwide (in the Spanish language). Breast cancer was used as a comparator of the campaign impact. Mean increase in RSV on-campaign and off-campaign was calculated and compared using the Mann-Whitney U test and Joinpoint regression analysis to assess loss or gain of interest. Results The term “cáncer de próstata” showed a statistically significant increase during the campaign months both in Spain (17.4%; P < 0.001) and worldwide (35.4%; P < 0.001). Both “cáncer de próstata” and Movember showed a decreasing trend worldwide and in Spain, while “cáncer de mama” showed an increasing trend. Conclusion The Movember campaign generates a statistically significant increase in the search trends on “cancer de próstata” (prostate cancer) during the month of November (both in Spain and worldwide); when compared with the breast cancer campaign “Pinktober” these increases are of a lesser magnitude but still significant, suggesting that the campaign is effective beyond the English language, although the interest has been decreasing throughout the years.