America's Burning Question: The Converging of Solar Eclipses and Eye Pain

Objectives: To analyze the trend behavior in eclipse retinopathy-related web searches in the United States nearing and after the 2024 total solar eclipse from April 6th, 2024 to April 14th, 2024. Background: Eclipse retinopathy is a specialized case of solar retinopathy, referring to severe eye damage from looking directly at a solar eclipse without protective eyewear. Retinal cell apoptosis can be observed 24 hours after direct exposure to only a 90% partial solar eclipse, peaking several days after initial exposure. Eclipse retinopathy-related searches in the United States around the 2024 total solar eclipse focused on the consequential effects rather than causes and prevention. Hence, analyzing the fluctuation in eclipse retinopathy search trends can help uncover knowledge gaps in solar eclipse safety across the United States. Methods: Using Google Trends, we analyzed web searches related to eye pain in the United States before and after the 2024 total solar eclipse by entering these four terms: “eyes hurt,” “eye pain,” “eclipse eye damage,” and “eclipse retinopathy.” We narrowed the time range to between April 6th, 2024, and April 14th, 2024, around the date of the eclipse, April 8th, 2024. After setting the category to “Health,” we retrieved the search data in a CSV file for further analysis. Results: Calculation of means and standard deviation (SD) revealed varying results amongst the 4 search terms over 9 days. “Eclipse retinopathy” held an average of 4.56 searches and an SD of 9.07; “eclipse eye damage” had a mean 14.56 searches (SD = 23.84). Proceeding was “eyes hurt,” (Mean = 21.11, SD = 17.19), and finally, “eye pain” averaged 76.78 searches (SD = 10.78). Conclusions: Americans showed great interest in the consequences of their eye pain and “eclipse retinopathy,” which, based on the trends data, was not a well-known term. Research should focus extensively on prevention of and education on eclipse retinopathy to emphasize the need for eye safety to the people.