Here Are The Most-Googled Medical Conditions By State

A new analysis breaks down Google searches for medical conditions by state, but with a caveat: Just because residents of a specific searched more for information about one ailment versus another doesn’t mean it’s a bigger problem there than in any other part of the country.

Were you to believe that, you might think that rabies is a huge problem in Maine and West Virginia is afflicted with pornography addiction. Though those were the terms most Googled in those states, Medicare Health Plans said its recent study doesn’t necessarily indicate a prevalence of those conditions.

Rather, the study of the most frequently searched medical conditions over the past year showed what people in a specific area are most concerned about regarding their health or the health of a loved one.

For the study, Medicare Health Plans analyzed Google Trends to identify the most-frequently searched medical conditions, then added corresponding conditions to a second search to find out which states, including the District of Columbia, had the highest search volume for each condition.

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The most-Googled medical term so far this year 2018 is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. It was the top search in nine states: Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Syphilis was the top search term in six states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Georgia has one of the highest STD transmission rates per capita, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and prevention.

The third most-frequent search was for HIV/AIDS, the top search term in the District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana and Oregon. States in the South had the highest rates of reported HIV cases in the United States, according to the CDC.

Residents of Kansas and Oklahoma most frequently looked for information about diabetes, according to the study. Oklahoma has the ninth highest obesity rate in the country.

Some findings were easily explained, for example:

“Binge drinking” was the top search term in Iowa, a small state that has the fourth-highest binge/chronic drinking rate in the country.

A string of Hepatitis A cases in Kentucky may have fueled searches by residents of that state.

Nevada residents most often Googled skin cancer, which makes sense given the scorching summers that residents of the state face every year.

Residents of Idaho searched for E. coli after the state was “hit hard” in the outbreak of the bacterial infection after eating romaine lettuce.

Vermont, which has one of the highest rates of opioid deaths in the U.S., most often searched for opioid use disorder.

And in Connecticut, people most often searched for “quarter-life crisis,” a term that describes the angst millennials can feel about the direction of their careers, relationships and overall life purpose. What’s interesting about that, Medicare Health Plans said, is that the Constitution State has one of the oldest median ages in the country at 40.9 years of age.

Here are the most-Googled health problems by state for this year:

1. Alabama — pneumonia
2. Alaska — UTI
3. Arizona — Hashimoto's disease
4. Arkansas — endometriosis
5. California — syphilis
6. Colorado — syphilis
7. Connecticut — quarter-life crisis
8. District of Columbia — HIV/AIDS
9. Delaware — hypertension
10. Florida — HIV/AIDS
11. Georgia — syphilis
12. Hawaii — Hashimoto's disease
13. Idaho — Escherichia coli
14. Illinois — syphilis
15. Indiana — ADHD
16. Iowa — binge drinking
17. Kansas — diabetes
18. Kentucky — hepatitis A
19. Louisiana — HIV/AIDS
20. Maine — rabies
21. Maryland — ADHD
22. Massachusetts — ADHD
23. Michigan — endometriosis
24. Minnesota — hemorrhoids
25. Mississippi — genital herpes
26. Missouri — ADHD
27. Montana — hypertension
28. Nebraska — anorexia
29. Nevada — skin cancer
30. New Hampshire — ADHD
31. New Jersey — breast cancer
32. New Mexico — PTSD
33. New York — breast cancer
34. North Carolina — ADHD
35. North Dakota — ear infection
36. Ohio — syphilis
37. Oklahoma — diabetes
38. Oregon — HIV/AIDS
39. Pennsylvania — syphilis
40. Rhode Island — lupus
41. South Carolina — endometriosis
42. South Dakota — insomnia
43. Tennessee — strep throat
44. Texas — ADHD
45. Utah — Hashimoto's disease
46. Vermont — opioid use disorder
47. Virginia — ADHD
48. Washington — body dysmorphia
49. West Virginia — porn addiction
50. Wisconsin — ADHD
51. Wyoming — flu

For more about the study, go here.

Photo via Shutterstock / Ditty_about_summer