Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract Background An increase in online searches on health topics may either mirror epidemiological changes or reflect media coverage. In the context of COVID-19, this is particularly relevant, as COVID-19 symptoms may be mistaken for those of respiratory disease exacerbations. Therefore, we aimed...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Clinical and Translational Allergy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13601-020-00352-9 |
| _version_ | 1828916807723909120 |
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| author | Bernardo Sousa-Pinto Enrico Heffler Aram Antó Wienczyslawa Czarlewski Anna Bedbrook Bilun Gemicioglu G. Walter Canonica Josep M. Antó João Almeida Fonseca Jean Bousquet |
| author_facet | Bernardo Sousa-Pinto Enrico Heffler Aram Antó Wienczyslawa Czarlewski Anna Bedbrook Bilun Gemicioglu G. Walter Canonica Josep M. Antó João Almeida Fonseca Jean Bousquet |
| author_sort | Bernardo Sousa-Pinto |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background An increase in online searches on health topics may either mirror epidemiological changes or reflect media coverage. In the context of COVID-19, this is particularly relevant, as COVID-19 symptoms may be mistaken for those of respiratory disease exacerbations. Therefore, we aimed to assess Internet search patterns on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the context of COVID-19, as compared to searches on other chronic diseases. Methods We retrieved Google Trends (GTs) data on two respiratory (asthma and COPD) and three non-respiratory (diabetes, hypertension, and Crohn’s disease) chronic diseases over the past 5 years (up to May 31, 2020). For 54 countries, and for each disease, we built autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to predict GTs for 2020 based on 2015–2019 search patterns. In addition, we estimated the proportion of searches in which COVID-19-related terms were used. To assess the potential impact of media coverage on online searches, we assessed whether weekly “asthma” GTs correlated with the number of Google News items on asthma. Results Over the past 5 years, worldwide search volumes for asthma and COPD reached their maximum values in March 2020. Such was not observed for diabetes, hypertension and Crohn’s disease. In 38 (70%) countries, GTs on asthma were higher in March 2020 than the respective maximum predicted values. This compares to 19 countries for COPD, 23 for hypertension, 11 for Crohn’s disease, and 9 for diabetes. Queries with COVID-19-related terms represented up to 47.8% of the monthly searches on asthma, and up to 21.3% of COPD searches. In most of the assessed countries, moderate-strong correlations were observed between “asthma” GTs and the number of news items on asthma. Conclusions During March 2020, there was a peak in searches on asthma and COPD, which was probably mostly driven by media coverage, as suggested by their simultaneity in several countries with different epidemiological situations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T20:39:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9fdfb30e867b45af96b7d2fec1375b5d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-7022 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T20:39:20Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Clinical and Translational Allergy |
| spelling | doaj.art-9fdfb30e867b45af96b7d2fec1375b5d2022-12-21T23:32:11ZengWileyClinical and Translational Allergy2045-70222020-11-0110111410.1186/s13601-020-00352-9Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemicBernardo Sousa-Pinto0Enrico Heffler1Aram Antó2Wienczyslawa Czarlewski3Anna Bedbrook4Bilun Gemicioglu5G. Walter Canonica6Josep M. Antó7João Almeida Fonseca8Jean Bousquet9MEDCIDS–Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of PortoPersonalized Medicine, Asthma & Allergy, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, IRCCSMASK-AirMASK-AirMASK-AirDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University-CerrahpasaPersonalized Medicine, Asthma & Allergy, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, IRCCSISGlobAL, Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL)MEDCIDS–Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of PortoMACVIA-FranceAbstract Background An increase in online searches on health topics may either mirror epidemiological changes or reflect media coverage. In the context of COVID-19, this is particularly relevant, as COVID-19 symptoms may be mistaken for those of respiratory disease exacerbations. Therefore, we aimed to assess Internet search patterns on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the context of COVID-19, as compared to searches on other chronic diseases. Methods We retrieved Google Trends (GTs) data on two respiratory (asthma and COPD) and three non-respiratory (diabetes, hypertension, and Crohn’s disease) chronic diseases over the past 5 years (up to May 31, 2020). For 54 countries, and for each disease, we built autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to predict GTs for 2020 based on 2015–2019 search patterns. In addition, we estimated the proportion of searches in which COVID-19-related terms were used. To assess the potential impact of media coverage on online searches, we assessed whether weekly “asthma” GTs correlated with the number of Google News items on asthma. Results Over the past 5 years, worldwide search volumes for asthma and COPD reached their maximum values in March 2020. Such was not observed for diabetes, hypertension and Crohn’s disease. In 38 (70%) countries, GTs on asthma were higher in March 2020 than the respective maximum predicted values. This compares to 19 countries for COPD, 23 for hypertension, 11 for Crohn’s disease, and 9 for diabetes. Queries with COVID-19-related terms represented up to 47.8% of the monthly searches on asthma, and up to 21.3% of COPD searches. In most of the assessed countries, moderate-strong correlations were observed between “asthma” GTs and the number of news items on asthma. Conclusions During March 2020, there was a peak in searches on asthma and COPD, which was probably mostly driven by media coverage, as suggested by their simultaneity in several countries with different epidemiological situations.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13601-020-00352-9AsthmaChronic diseasesChronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseCOVID-19Google trends |
| spellingShingle | Bernardo Sousa-Pinto Enrico Heffler Aram Antó Wienczyslawa Czarlewski Anna Bedbrook Bilun Gemicioglu G. Walter Canonica Josep M. Antó João Almeida Fonseca Jean Bousquet Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic Clinical and Translational Allergy Asthma Chronic diseases Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COVID-19 Google trends |
| title | Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full | Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_short | Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_sort | anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease google trends patterns during the covid 19 pandemic |
| topic | Asthma Chronic diseases Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COVID-19 Google trends |
| url | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13601-020-00352-9 |
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