Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age?
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether or not online queries for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) retrieved by means of Google Trends™ and the Italian Wikipedia analysis program mirror the occurrence of influenza-like illnesses (ILI), as reported by the Italian Influenza Surveillance network...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Children |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/9/12/1984 |
| _version_ | 1797460886250586112 |
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| author | Matteo Riccò Antonio Baldassarre Sandro Provenzano Silvia Corrado Milena Pia Cerviere Salvatore Parisi Federico Marchesi Marco Bottazzoli |
| author_facet | Matteo Riccò Antonio Baldassarre Sandro Provenzano Silvia Corrado Milena Pia Cerviere Salvatore Parisi Federico Marchesi Marco Bottazzoli |
| author_sort | Matteo Riccò |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The aim of this study was to evaluate whether or not online queries for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) retrieved by means of Google Trends™ and the Italian Wikipedia analysis program mirror the occurrence of influenza-like illnesses (ILI), as reported by the Italian Influenza Surveillance network (InfluNet). Estimated rates for ILI in the general population and in the age groups 0–4 years and 5–14 years were obtained for the influenza seasons 2017–2018 to 2020–2021. Similarly, a weekly fraction of online searches was retrieved for a series of terms associated with Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Next, trends for daily visualization of Italian Wikipedia Pages for Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Pneumonia, Bronchiolitis, Influenza, and Respiratory Failure were similarly retrieved. The correlation of all search terms with ILI was analyzed by means of Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. Among search terms associated with the clinical diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus infections, the occurrence of ILI was highly correlated only with Bronchiolitis in the age group 0–4 years (β 0.210, <i>p</i> = 0.028), while more generic search terms, such as Bronchitis, fever, influenza, and Pneumonia, were identified as effective predictors of ILI, in general and by age groups. In a regression analysis modeled with ILIs as the outcome variable, daily visualizations for the Wikipedia pages on Bronchiolitis were identified as negative predictors for ILI in general (β = −0.152, <i>p</i> = 0.032), ILI in age group 0–4 years (β = −0.264, <i>p</i> = 0.001) and 5–14 years (β = −0.202, <i>p</i> = 0.006), while Influenza was characterized as a positive effector for ILIs in the age group 5–14 years (β = 0.245, <i>p</i> = 0.001). Interestingly, not only were the search terms extensively correlated with one another, but all of them were also characterized by autocorrelation through a Durbin-Watson test (all estimates DW < 2.0) In summary, our study identified a complicated pattern of data visualization as no clear association between rates of ILI in pediatric age group 0–4 and 5 to 14 years was actually found. Finally, our data stress that the infodemiology option may be quite problematic for assessing the time trend of RSV infections in Italy until more appropriate reporting will be made available, by sharing estimates of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections, and through a more accurate characterization of younger age groups. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T17:11:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8461b128fa414d789bcab5eaa3c66e70 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9067 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T17:11:33Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Children |
| spelling | doaj.art-8461b128fa414d789bcab5eaa3c66e702023-11-24T14:03:05ZengMDPI AGChildren2227-90672022-12-01912198410.3390/children9121984Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age?Matteo Riccò0Antonio Baldassarre1Sandro Provenzano2Silvia Corrado3Milena Pia Cerviere4Salvatore Parisi5Federico Marchesi6Marco Bottazzoli7AUSL–IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Servizio di Prevenzione e Sicurezza Negli Ambienti di Lavoro (SPSAL), Local Health Unit of Reggio Emilia, 42122 Reggio Emilia, ItalyDepartment of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, ItalyLocal Health Unit of Trapani, ASP Trapani, 91100 Trapani, ItalyDepartment of Medicine DAME—Division of Pediatrics, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, ItalyUniversità Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, ItalySanofi, Medical Affairs, 20100 Milan, ItalyDepartment of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, 43126 Parma, ItalyDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology, APSS Trento, 31223 Trento, ItalyThe aim of this study was to evaluate whether or not online queries for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) retrieved by means of Google Trends™ and the Italian Wikipedia analysis program mirror the occurrence of influenza-like illnesses (ILI), as reported by the Italian Influenza Surveillance network (InfluNet). Estimated rates for ILI in the general population and in the age groups 0–4 years and 5–14 years were obtained for the influenza seasons 2017–2018 to 2020–2021. Similarly, a weekly fraction of online searches was retrieved for a series of terms associated with Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Next, trends for daily visualization of Italian Wikipedia Pages for Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Pneumonia, Bronchiolitis, Influenza, and Respiratory Failure were similarly retrieved. The correlation of all search terms with ILI was analyzed by means of Spearman’s rank correlation analysis. Among search terms associated with the clinical diagnosis of Respiratory Syncytial Virus infections, the occurrence of ILI was highly correlated only with Bronchiolitis in the age group 0–4 years (β 0.210, <i>p</i> = 0.028), while more generic search terms, such as Bronchitis, fever, influenza, and Pneumonia, were identified as effective predictors of ILI, in general and by age groups. In a regression analysis modeled with ILIs as the outcome variable, daily visualizations for the Wikipedia pages on Bronchiolitis were identified as negative predictors for ILI in general (β = −0.152, <i>p</i> = 0.032), ILI in age group 0–4 years (β = −0.264, <i>p</i> = 0.001) and 5–14 years (β = −0.202, <i>p</i> = 0.006), while Influenza was characterized as a positive effector for ILIs in the age group 5–14 years (β = 0.245, <i>p</i> = 0.001). Interestingly, not only were the search terms extensively correlated with one another, but all of them were also characterized by autocorrelation through a Durbin-Watson test (all estimates DW < 2.0) In summary, our study identified a complicated pattern of data visualization as no clear association between rates of ILI in pediatric age group 0–4 and 5 to 14 years was actually found. Finally, our data stress that the infodemiology option may be quite problematic for assessing the time trend of RSV infections in Italy until more appropriate reporting will be made available, by sharing estimates of Lower Respiratory Tract Infections, and through a more accurate characterization of younger age groups.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/9/12/1984RSVrespiratory syndromeslower respiratory tract infectioninfodemiology |
| spellingShingle | Matteo Riccò Antonio Baldassarre Sandro Provenzano Silvia Corrado Milena Pia Cerviere Salvatore Parisi Federico Marchesi Marco Bottazzoli Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age? Children RSV respiratory syndromes lower respiratory tract infection infodemiology |
| title | Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age? |
| title_full | Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age? |
| title_fullStr | Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age? |
| title_short | Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age? |
| title_sort | infodemiology of rsv in italy 2017 2022 an alternative option for the surveillance of incident cases in pediatric age |
| topic | RSV respiratory syndromes lower respiratory tract infection infodemiology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/9/12/1984 |
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