Quantifying Public Interest in Merkel Cell Carcinoma in the United States Following the Death of Jimmy Buffett and Implications for Continued Health Advocacy

Background: September 01, 2023, marked the loss of iconic singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett after a lengthy battle with lymphoma precipitating from the non-melanoma skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). MCC is an aggressive non-melanoma skin cancer with high metastatic potential, often resulting in poor prognoses and a significant cause of skin cancer-related deaths. Given Buffett’s prominent status, media coverage of his death was extensive. Thus, our objective was to quantify public search interest in skin cancer, MCC, and related risk factors before and after Buffett’s death, with the objective of emphasizing the influence public figures and subsequent media coverage have on public health-related topics.

Methods: Relative search interest (RSI) data from Google Trends was used to perform a temporal analysis. We extracted (RSI) for search terms “skin cancer,” “Merkel cell carcinoma,” and “health effects of sunlight exposure” in the United States from August 02, 2023 through September 30, 2023. Auto-regressive integrated moving algorithm (ARIMA) models were constructed to forecast RSI if Buffett’s death had not occurred, based on 30 days prior. Actual RSI was compared to forecasted trends in RSI during analysis.

Results: Our study found that search interest for “skin cancer”, “Merkel cell carcinoma”, and “health effects of sunlight exposure” significantly increased among US users following the announcement of Buffett’s death. Peaks in RSI occurred two to three days following his death, correlating with major news outlets’ reporting of the event. Notably, RSI values for "skin cancer" and "Merkel cell carcinoma" saw 1,059.42% and 21,968.97% increase, respectively, above expected values. "Health effects of sunlight exposure" exhibited a 95.79% surge.

Conclusion: Through Jimmy Buffett’s unfortunate battle with lymphoma originating from Merkel cell carcinoma and subsequent media coverage of his death, public interest in skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma, and the health effects of sunlight exposure increased as evidenced by our results. Increased public interest in such topics may advance MCC screening and treatment aimed at mitigating unmet medical needs. It is also crucial to address challenges related to sustainability of disseminating accurate information related to health behaviors to the public.