COVID-19 Infodemiology: Association Between Google Search and Vaccination in Malaysian Population

Abstract

BackgroundIn light of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, vaccination is one of the most important defensive strategies in combating the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Vaccine hesitancy or anti-vaccination attitude has become a barrier to the nationwide vaccination program, potentially sabotaging the effectiveness of vaccination. Thus far, Google Trends (GT) has been used extensively for monitoring information-seeking behavior during the pandemic. We aimed to investigate the association between Google search, the vaccination rate, and the number of vaccinated and infected cases among the Malaysian population. Material and methodGT's customizable geographic and temporal filters were applied to include results for predetermined keywords from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021. Both Malay and English languages were used to reflect the multi-racial and multi-lingual community in Malaysia. The search volume index (SVI) derived was compared with the numbers of vaccinated and infected cases which were extracted from the open-access database (COVIDNOW in Malaysia) within the same period. Both analyses were performed independently by two authors to ensure accuracy of the data extraction process. A descriptive analysis was used to compare GT analyses and the number of daily vaccinations and positive COVID-19 cases. ResultsThe information-seeking behavior in the public fluctuated from time to time. The interest surged during the initiation of vaccination program and upon the outbreak of COVID-19 in Malaysia. The surge in interest prior to the peak of vaccination rate also indicated that the public tended to get information online prior to getting the vaccines. ConclusionThis observational study illustrates the ability of GT to monitor the interest of vaccination among the Malaysian population during the pandemic. By monitoring the dynamic changes in Google Trends, healthcare authorities can get a glimpse of public perceptions such as attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine, hence potentially identify and stymie any dangerous online anti-vaccination rhetoric swiftly.

Invasive Meningococcal Disease and Meningococcal Serogroup B Vaccination in Adults and Their Offspring: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices in Italy (2019)

“…An extensive representation of certain topics in the media may reasonably lead to overstating the true significance of this pathogen from a public health point of view [ 102 ]. While the appropriate measurement of the qualitative and quantitative coverage of a specific topic by conventional media is particularly difficult to achieve, Google Trends™ may represent a reliable proxy for new media coverage [ 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 ]. Google Trends TM is an open online tool [ 107 , 108 , 109 ], where web searches on a certain topic are reported as relative search volumes (RSV), i.e., the normalized value ranging from 0 to 100 and proportional to the ratio between the keyword-related queries and the total number of web queries.…”

Infodemiology of RSV in Italy (2017–2022): An Alternative Option for the Surveillance of Incident Cases in Pediatric Age?

“…In fact, all of the variables that were included in the analyses exhibited some sort of autocorrelation (See Appendix A ). Autocorrelation is sometimes known as serial correlation in the discrete time case, i.e., the correlation of a signal with a delayed copy of itself as a function of delay [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]. A high degree of autocorrelation, such as in our study, suggests that the data reflect an underlying cyclic pattern of events that actually drives the results.…”

“…While some observational studies based on the regional database have provided some snapshots of the clinical data [ 4 , 19 , 21 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ], alternative options for monitoring RSV infection trends are therefore required, at least until epidemiological and virological surveillance is able to deliver appropriate and reliable information. In recent years, infodemiology (i.e., the science of distribution and determinants of information in an electronic medium, specifically the Internet, or in a population, with the ultimate aim to inform public health and public policy) [ 30 ] and infoveillance (i.e., epidemic surveillance performed by means of infodemiology) [ 31 , 32 ] have emerged as effective tools in predicting outbreaks of several infectious diseases, ranging from influenza to COVID-19 [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. The rationale of infodemiology is that the appropriate analysis of research trends in specific search engines, web platforms and social media may reflect or even anticipate the epidemiological features of certain disorders [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ].…”

Outcomes of Geriatric Hip Fractures in a Tertiary Referral Center in Malaysia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…After the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19), not many countries were capable of handling this novel virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) [23][24][25]. On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic when the number of infected cases exceeded 110,000 in 114 countries [23][24][25].…”