Is Interest in Preventive Health Screening Growing in America?

Over the past two decades, online interest in diagnostic and preventive testing has shifted meaningfully in the United States. 

A new report by LabCafe analyzes search interest from 2004 through early 2026 across three topics: “lab tests”, “health screen”, and “at home lab test” to quantify long-run public interest changes.

Key Takeaways

• Health screening interest grew by 276% between 2004–2006 and 2023–2026.
• At-home lab testing went from negligible to mainstream; in 2004–2006 there was no search interest for it, then it rises to about 41.46 in 2023–2026
• North Dakota leads overall with the highest combined search interest, followed by South Dakota and Wisconsin, and the broader Top 10 is dominated by Upper Midwest and Plains states.

How Has Search Interest Changed Across the United States Since 2004?

The national time series shows three distinct trajectories that matter for interpretation. The Google Trends search index shows relative search interest, where 100 is peak popularity for a term, and 0 means minimal or no interest during the selected period.

• Health screen rises substantially from the early baseline window 2004–2006 to the recent window 2023–2026, making it the cleanest structural growth signal in the dataset. On average, health screen increases from 9.03 (2004–2006) to 33.97 (2023–2026), which is roughly +276% growth over time. Consistent with that jump, the fitted long-run trend is about +1.18 index points per year, and the series reaches its peak of 100 in December 2025.
• At home lab test is a category that emerges and normalizes rather than simply “grows” from a stable baseline. In the baseline period 2004–2006, the topic averages 0.0. By 2023–2026, the average level is about 41.46, and the fitted long-run trend is the fastest of the three at roughly +2.36 index points per year.
• Lab tests stay high across the whole period with only modest long-run drift, so it behaves like an always-on category people search for consistently rather than one that’s “taking off.” The average interest is 71.19 in 2004–2006 versus 69.76 in 2023–2026, which is about -2% over the long arc.

Which U.S. States Show the Highest Interest?

We analyzed where search interest is most concentrated by state using the Google Trends index for the last two years (2024 - 2026). The map and rankings are a quick way to spot geographic hotspots where demand consistently over-indexes relative to other states. In the data, interest is highly concentrated rather than evenly distributed. A small group of states rises to the top, with North Dakota standing out as the clearest hotspot, with the highest combined score (about 87.7), followed by Oklahoma  (71.7) and West Virginia (69.7).

Overall combined interest leaders

• North Dakota, 87.7 combined search interest
• Oklahoma 71.7
• West Virginia 69.7
• Mississippi 69.0
• Indiana 68
• Nebraska 68
• Louisiana 66.7
• Idaho 66
• Florida 65.3
• Rhode Island 65.3
• Tennessee 65.3

Topic-by-topic leaders

• At home lab test is led by North Dakota
• Lab tests is led by North Dakota
• Health screen is led by Massachusetts

Taken together, the trend lines suggest a real shift in how Americans think about testing. Interest in preventive care is rising sharply. Health screen grows from an average of 9.03 in 2004–2006 to 33.97 in 2023–2026 while at home lab test moves from essentially 0.0 in the mid‑2000s to about 41.46 in 2023–2026. That pattern fits a broader story of people taking testing more into their own hands. When screening and lab work are easier to do on your own schedule and without navigating appointments, travel, and time off work, consumer interest naturally follows.

At the same time, rising interest does not mean access is solved. The US testing landscape remains fragmented across income and geography. In 2023, an estimated 27.1 million Americans lacked health insurance coverage, and uninsured rates among adults ages 18–64 reached 11.1%. Those coverage gaps translate into large screening disparities.

Methodology

Data source and scope

We analyzed Google Trends indices (normalized 0–100) for the queries lab tests, health screen, and at-home lab test. The analysis covers January 2004 through early 2026. We gathered monthly values for United States. Each series is a Google Trends index where 100 represents the peak popularity within that series and geography for the selected period.

To quantify “grew by xx%” in a way that’s stable and easy to interpret, growth is calculated by comparing an early-period baseline to a late-period baseline:

• The early window is the first 3 years of available data (approximately 2004-01 to 2006-12).
• The late window is the most recent 3 years of data (approximately 2023-01 to 2026-01).
• We compute early mean and late mean (average monthly index within each window), then:

  • Absolute growth = late mean − early mean
  • Percent growth = (late mean − early mean) / early mean

In addition to the window comparison, we fit a simple linear trend over the full period to summarize long-run direction:

• A linear regression of monthly interest on time (in years) produces a slope interpreted as index points per year (e.g., ~3.36 points/year for the US series in your writeup). This is meant as a compact “over-time” descriptor rather than a causal model.

State-level ranking, US

For the US map and top-state list, we used the full-period relative interest by state. Google Trends geographic outputs are normalized such that the top state is 100, and all other states are scaled relative to that leader. The combined interest top states list is generated by sorting states in descending order of this index for the full 2024–2026 period.

Notes on interpretation and comparability

Because Google Trends indices are normalized, they reflect relative search interest rather than absolute search volume. The over-time results (growth %, slope) are best interpreted as changes in relative interest over time within the same series, while the geographic rankings identify where interest is concentrated relative to other states or areas in the same pull.